With difficulty, we’ve all come to grips with the fact that Game of Thrones season 8 won’t air until 2019. After that, the question became: When in 2019?? Thanks to Maisie Williams (Arya), we might have our answer. Speaking to Metro, Williams dropped some scheduling details.
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. We owe it to our audience and our fans to really do this final season to the best of our abilities.
An April 2019 debut would be in keeping with Thrones’ traditional spring air date. Season 7 kicked off in July, but that was an exception.
Now, we must caution everyone that Williams’ forecast contrasts with what other members of the cast and crew have said. Peter Dinklage recently said the production was “about halfway through filming” the final season of the show. Since they started around October of 2017, that would the end of filming sometime in April of this year, well shy of December. And right after season 7 ended, The Hollywood Reporter’s sources put the end date for filming around August of 2018. We’re probably going to have to wait a while for an official announcement, but Williams’ comments are the most concrete so far.
Also, let’s not let Williams’ comment about “huge episodes” go by without remark. Is she talking about their importance for the story or their potentially inflated runtimes? You decide.
Williams also touched on Arya’s journey throughout the series, and how she’d like it to end:
I’ve always said I wanted her to find peace. The things that have been driving her through her story have been very bitter and twisted and aggressive. I would love for Arya to find her true self again and let go of this anger and revenge that’s accompanied her on this journey. I’d love for her to be happy.
Here’s hoping.
Williams is all over the place these days promoting her new movie, Early Man, which is out today in the UK. Here she is with costar Tom Hiddleston (Loki from the Avengers movies) playing a game of “Who Said It? Arya or Loki?”
It’s not a hard game.
Finally, Williams stopped by BBC Radio 1 so she could get hooked up to a heart rate monitor and peppered with questions while we watch how her body reacts. It’s odd, but maybe her heart rate will betray something about season 8? The Game of Thrones-specific questions start around 7:04.
Early Man hits theaters in the US on February 16 in the US.
