Get ready for a world of pain, “Game of Thrones” fanatics. Looks like we may not get the final season until 2019. And those so-called prequels? They’re likely not coming anytime soon, either.
But fear not: Whenever we get it, it’s going to be very good. Just ask Casey Bloys, HBO’s programming president. In a chat with Entertainment Weekly, Bloys set the record straight on the final season — plus, rumors of those prequels.
There’s no such thing as four prequels. Probably.
Bloys gives a little context to reports that there are multiple prequels in the works — ones that would explore other parts of the massive world that George R.R. Martin created. “This is a really embryonic process,” Bloys tells the mag. “I haven’t even seen outlines. In the press at large, everybody said, ‘there are four spinoffs’ and they assume that means each one is happening and we’re going to have a new ‘Game of Thrones’ show per quarter. That’s not what’s going on.”
And showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss won’t be involved.
By the time the series wraps up, Benioff and Weiss will have been at it for 12 years. Understandably, they’re opting for some time away from the world of Westeros. “In conversations with them, they feel if their name is on the prequels — even in a passive way — it conveys some sort of expectation or responsibility,” Bloys told the magazine.
“They want to enjoy the show as fans and don’t want to worry about the scripts or production issues. We were hoping to have their names on it out of respect for them, but we understand why they don’t want that.”
Making the next two seasons of “Game of Thrones” as good as possible is the main goal.
If you’re wondering what we did to deserve this, take comfort in knowing it’s mostly Benioff and Weiss being perfectionists. “Making ‘Game of Thrones’ as good as possible is the No. 1 goal,” Bloys admits. “… They put everything — and are putting everything — into this show.”
But it’s definitely going to be epic.
Like, really, very epic. “The show has proven that TV is every bit as impressive, and in many cases more so, than film. What they’re doing is monumental. When you see these battles in Season 7, and what I imagine Season 8 will be, it’s a big, big show. We’ve done a lot of great shows, but this one combines the complex characters we love with a huge cinematic scope,” Bloys says.
“I don’t want to oversell, but I can’t imagine anybody being disappointed in this season. It’s amazing.”
