Get ready, GAME OF THRONES fans: there may be only seven episodes this coming season, but one of them is 90 minutes long.
Game of Thrones Season 7 is bucking tradition in a couple of ways. First, instead of the normal 10-episode order, this season will only have 7. Second, the episodes won’t have a consistent length. Two will be considerably over 60 minutes. Showrunner David Benioff commented,
It always amazed me when I watched Breaking Bad and they could get every episode so perfect and they would all be like 42 minutes and 40 seconds or something. Which is its own separate skill amongst everything else that went into making the show that [creator] Vince Gilligan and his team were able to do. One of the things we’re lucky about is we don’t have the same pressure. We have one episode that’s coming in around 90 minutes and another that’s going to be our shortest episode at 50 minutes. Those episodes are better [at] those lengths but I’m glad we didn’t have the additional pressure Vince had.
This season is shaping up to be the best one yet, with several storylines coming together on the screen at last. Previously, most main characters operated within their own spheres and stories: Daenerys Targaryen (Emilia Clarke) in Essos, Jon Snow (Kit Harington) in the North, and Arya Stark (Maisie Williams) on the run, for example. The process of interweaving began when Tyrion (Peter Dinklage) finally met Daenerys near the end of season 5, and that’s only going to increase in season 7. Showrunner Dan Weiss explained:
As the worlds start to converge, characters who haven’t met each other before start to meet each other and there are more and more main characters together in each other’s storylines than there have ever been before. Ever since Tyrion crossed the Narrow Sea and met Dany it’s been the show’s general direction. And for us, it’s so much fun because these guys don’t get to spend too much time together except when they pass like ships in the night passing to and from storylines. So having them on set together is a real privilege for us because we get to spend more time with them.
Benioff and Weiss have also provided an update on the next and final season 8. “It’s nearly completed,” said Benioff before adding, “I shouldn’t say ‘nearly.'” Weiss added, “I wouldn’t go that far.” Benioff was equally unhelpful in giving the air date for season 8. “We honestly don’t know yet. There’s been a lot of back and forth about air dates. That’s a long way off from being settled.”
Game of Thrones season 7 premieres July 16 on HBO.
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