Wait, Is 'Game Of Thrones' Coming To An End?

With the good news that the Season 6 premiere for Game of Thrones is fast approaching, sadly — like a true GoT episode — bad news is also on the horizon. Hey, you gotta have some balance, right? Showrunners David Benioff and Dan Weiss told Entertainment Weekly on Thursday that Season 8 of Game Of Thrones may be its last. “We’ve known for several years now how many hours roughly we want it to go,” Benioff said in the interview. “It hasn’t changed.”

Though Season 7 has yet to be confirmed by the creators or the show's network, HBO, talks about when an end date for the series might have come up for years. In 2014, for instance, according to Entertainment Weekly, Benioff and Weiss hinted that their ideal length for the series might be seven seasons. “In every conversation, that’s been [the showrunners’] thinking,” HBO’s entertainment president Michael Lombardo told EW in reference to Season 8 being the series' last. “It will be interesting to see how strongly they feel about being definitive about that when we are in a position to announce Seasons 7 and 8.”

Apparently, Benioff and Weiss' hours plan also may mean that the series will ultimately shorten its seasons for its seventh and eighth seasons: From EW,

Thrones would then have six 10-episode seasons and shortened seasons for years seven (with seven episodes) and eight (with six episodes).

That's not that much time at all, when you think about it. It's 23 more hours of Game Of Thrones, in fact, if you do the math between Season 6, and the prospect of a shortened Season 7 and Season 8.

“[Ending Thrones] will be a tough one for me — partly as an executive and partly as a fan,” Lombardo added, in the same interview. “A show that resonates this way and works on all levels, it’s painful to imagine it ending. At the same time, David and Dan have a big responsibility and I respect that enormously.”

He's right. With GoT being one of the network's most popular shows, well, ever, ending it will ultimately be a crucial decision for HBO. In recent years, the show has continued to gain a larger viewership every season, racking up more than 20 million viewers in the U.S. alone in 2015. Here's hoping this is merely just an "in talks" discussion, and we get to see more realms for years to come? Guys? Please?

Images: Macall B. Polay/HBO; Giphy