Yeah, 'Game Of Thrones' Is Officially Ending

Ready, set, GO: It's probably smart to start figuring out that creatively fulfilling and time-consuming project you've always wanted to do now (writing your novel? Recording that album? Finally catching 'em all on Pokémon Go?) because HBO has confirmed Game of Thrones Season 8 will be the last in the series. Yes, that's right: There'll soon be a gaping void in your life where HBO's premiere serving of sword-fights, dragons, and rising levels of feminism used to go. So, sure, you could switch to another television show, but let's face it, it just won't be the same. Where else do Sand Snakes lead revolutions, where else does Daenerys Targaryen school the rest of the world in ethics, and where else is the duplicitous Lord Petyr Baelish maybe behind, well, everything?

The sad news comes to us courtesy of Entertainment Weekly, which asked HBO's programming president Casey Bloys if he would go along with what the showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss have always stated they had in mind: a Season 8 ending for Game Of Thrones. Bloys confirmed that, yes, this was in fact the plan. This is significant because it's the first time someone at HBO has confirmed the news. He said:

Yes, they have a very specific plan about the number of seasons they want to do. ...Believe me, as the new [programming executive] coming in, if I could get them to do more. I would take 10 more seasons. But we take their lead on what they think they can do the best version of the show.

Color me impressed. It would be all too easy to draw the series out for the next ten years, given the level of buzz surrounding it. But why not end it on a high note? But wait. There could be more. Entertainment Weekly then asked about the possibility of a spinoff series:

We’ve talked about it. It’s something I’m not opposed to, but of course it has to make sense creatively. I’m not sure that [Benioff and Weiss] could really wrap their heads around it when they’re just about to start production [on Season 7]. It’s a pretty intense production, they’re about to start production soon. I’m open to it. The guys weren’t opposed to it, but there’s no concrete plans for it at this point.

So, maybe we don't have to say goodbye, at least not completely? I'm going to take not being opposed to doing a spinoff series as a strong possibility that we may not have seen the last of Westeros. Here's hoping! In a year where revivals and sequels are par for the course, it would make sense. Fingers crossed.

Images: HBO; Giphy