The End Is Near For 'Game Of Thrones'

After Sunday's Game of Thrones finale, "The Winds of Winter," there was a sense of ... well, finality in the air. The last shots show the remaining players in the game: Cersei on the Iron Throne, Jon Snow at Winterfell being hailed as King of the North, and Daenerys Targaryen finally sailing to Westeros after six seasons of strategy and struggle. Turns out that if you felt that way, there was a reason: Showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss have confirmed that this is really the beginning of the end. In an interview with Deadline on Monday, in which they discussed everything from the show's best villains to Cersei's revenge to how the epic Battle of the Bastards was filmed, Benioff and Weiss confirmed that there are only two seasons of Game Of Thrones left. Say it ain't so!

I know what you're thinking, because it's probably close to my reaction: "Nooooooooo!" But let's take a moment to process this. Is GoT ending at the top of its game really such a bad thing?

Benioff laid out pretty clearly just how much of the great game was left: "It’s two more seasons we’re talking about. From pretty close to the beginning, we talked about doing this in 70-75 hours, and that’s what we’ll end up with. Call it 73 for now," he said. Well, that's specific. That means there are about 13 episodes of GoT left, spread over two seasons (likely as previously rumored, with seven episodes in Season 7 and six in Season 8). Both showrunners agreed that they didn't want to "overstay" their welcome, which seems impossible for Game of Thrones. But they made a good point: They've known the end of the story from the very beginning, and they don't want to drag it out.

"We know the Night King is up there, waiting for all of them," Benioff said about Jon Snow, Cersei and Daenerys. "We’re trying to tell one cohesive story with a beginning, middle and end ... the pieces are on the board now. Some of the pieces have been removed from the board and we are heading toward the end game." It'll be hard to say goodbye to Game of Thrones, but OK, this makes sense.

As Weiss said about the decision to end the show after two seasons: "Like President Obama, we want to leave while all the people watching this show are really into it. Get out at a high point and not have it be, well thank god that’s over."

For six seasons, the warning of winter has loomed — and now winter is finally here. The battle between the living and the dead is coming. And even if it will only play out over 13 more episodes, aren't you itching to know who will win the Game of Thrones, and who will die?

Images: HBO, Giphy (2)