There was certainly some grumbling and griping on the internet after HBO officially announced Game of Thrones will delay its final season until a 2019 premiere. But with the end in sight, we have plenty of time to try to come up with how exactly we shall pass our down-time after the show ends… There will be no bloodlines to theorize about! No characters to mourn! No more questions to be answered! Whatever shall we do?! Not to worry– HBO has already announced they have five Game of Thrones spin-offs(not all of which will likely make it to production) in the works which will allow us to return to the world of Westeros after the final episode of Season 8 has come and gone. Recently, we learned some new information regarding these spin-offs at the Television Critics Association press tour from HBO programming president Casey Bloys, himself. Bloys suggested we will have to wait for a decent amount of time after Thrones itself ends:
“We’re not doing a final season and then, ‘Following it at 11 p.m. … .’ I’ve seen some exciting material. We have really great writers working on these; it’s very exciting. But there’s no timetable. Not everybody is on the same schedule, so I’ve seen different versions of different things that are potentially exciting. But there’s no timetable about when a decision would be made about any of them.”
So…we will have to stay tuned, but don’t expect anything immediately after the finale of Game of Thrones. Bloys went on to praise the final season of the show, saying of the episode scripts he has read, “They’re great. It’s fantastic. The fans are going to be very, very happy.” Bloys also told us there will be no breaks in the weekly airing of the episodes: “It’s going to air six in a row. Episode length, I have no idea yet what it’s going to be.”
Moving on, Great Britain’s Royal Mail is releasing a lovely line of Game of Thrones stamps. What a time to be alive. Perhaps dark wings will bear slightly less dark words, when adorned with these beautiful portraits of characters from the show, including Tyrion, Jon, Daenerys, and Jaime. Definitely something to keep an eye out for, if you are a fan of letter writing, or stamp collecting in general in addition to Thrones, though it looks like American fans may have to work a little harder to get their hands on them.
Other than that, news is fairly quiet. Liam Cunningham (Davos Seaworth), recently did a delightful interview where he let slip that he was originally asked to audition for a completely different character than the lovable, loyal smuggler we know him as today. He wouldn’t say who the character was, but it’s an interesting factoid to think about. He claims he didn’t get the Season One role he applied for, but was called back for Season Two. Thank goodness– it’s hard to imagine the show without him.
We’ll keep you posted on the latest Game of Thrones news as it comes out, so keep checking in. Hopefully we’ll hear more about Season Eight soon!
