HBO teases Game of Thrones final season release date for very first time

HBO for the first time provided clues as to when the final season of their flagship show, Game of Thrones, will be released. Speaking at the Television Critics Association press tour on Wednesday, HBO President Casey Bloys said the eighth season of Game of Thrones will premiere in ‘early 2019’. While this isn’t much to go on, fans can at least rest easy that the show is arriving sooner rather than later.

Actors have recently been sharing updates from the sets of the show, and as of last month, most of them have concluded their shooting schedules. Actors such as Maisie Williams and Emilia Clarke shared tearful goodbyes to the cast and crew on social media.

Game of Thrones has traditionally premiered around March and April, although the seventh season debuted in July. It would appear that for its abridged final season - the show will end with six huge episodes as opposed to the usual 10 - HBO is targeting a similar release schedule.

In January, Maisie Williams, who plays Arya Stark on the show, let slip the premiere month of the final season. “We wrap in December and we air our first episode in April (2019). That’s a four-month turnaround for these huge episodes. There’s a lot that goes into the final edit. You would not want to rush this season at all,” Williams said.

As for the show’s plot and the convergence of several storylines that have been building for years, Sophie Turner, who plays Sansa Stark, said previously, “I can tell you that there’s definitely a coming together of people. Everyone is coming together to fight the impending doom. There’s a lot of tension between these little groups, battling for what they think is right. It’s Game of Thrones, so it’s going to be bloodier and more death and more emotionally torturous than all the years before.”

Based on George RR Martin’s popular series of books, the show has received 38 Primetime Emmy Awards, including Outstanding Drama Series in 2015 and 2016, more than any other prime time scripted television series.

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