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For the sea of Game of Thrones fans waiting for the show’s eighth and final season, the wait just got a little bit easier: HBO announced on Tuesday that the show will return in April 2019. Depending on how late or early it premieres within the month — HBO has not yet announced an exact premiere date — we’re between four and a half and five months away from the beginning of the end.
HBO has been pretty mum about details surrounding Game of Thrones’ final season. Before narrowing the premiere date to April, the network previously said in July that the show would premiere in “the first half of 2019.” And in Entertainment Weekly’s exclusive report from the set of season eight published earlier this month, the details were scarce and extremely vague — according to the report, there’s a big battle featuring lots of characters — to avoid possible spoilers.
As for the details we do know, showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, as well as David Nutter and Miguel Sapochnik, will be the directors for season eight. The season’s six episodes, which will all have feature-length runtimes (80 minutes or longer), will be written by Benioff, Weiss, Bryan Cogman, and Dave Hill.
Granted, four and a half to five months still feels a long time away, especially for die-hard Game of Thrones devotees. But at least there’s a finish line in sight.
