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Well, that didn’t take long. Just two days ago, an interview with Game of Thrones’ Visual Effects Supervisor, Joe Bauer, sparked a great deal of hubbub among impatient fans who feared that the long wait for the show’s final season would be even longer than expected. At the time, I cautioned against jumping to conclusions. After all, “Words are wind.” And now, we have more words to regard, and they’re more reassuring. According to those in the know, you can still expect Game of Thrones Season Eight sooner rather than later.
After a few heated days of speculation and sorrow on the part of Thrones fans, Entertainment Weekly, who has friends in high places when it comes to HBO, recently joined the fray and cleared up any rumors that had begun to spread about GOT’s premiere date, thanks to The Huffington Post‘s interpretation of Bauer’s prose.
Entertainment Weekly’s James Hibberd writes:
GoT returns for its final six episodes that will air during the first half of 2019. There have been reports over the weekend claiming the show’s return has been “delayed” to mid-2019 making it not eligible for Emmys until 2020. Rest assured, “first half of 2019” means exactly that, and HBO expects the show will air all its episodes in time for the 2019 Emmy eligibility cut off.
Great. Now everyone can relax a bit and go back to indulging in the usual stresses of being a Game of Thrones fan. Will the White Walkers ravage the world of Westeros with their icy apocalypse? Will Jon Snow ever discover his true heritage? Will Ser Jorah Mormont ever find love? For answers to all these burning questions, we’ll just have to wait a bit longer.
Hopefully we can look forward to an actual premiere date soon. HBO is markedly beginning to ramp up their marketing for Game of Thrones. In fact, audiences got their first glimpse of Season Eight this weekend, courtesy of HBO’s latest “Coming Soon,” clip, which is comprised of a short shot of Jon Snow (Kit Harington) and Sansa Stark (Sophie Turner) sharing a warm hug. It’s not exactly a ground-breaking bit of footage, but for those who love the Stark siblings (and please, let’s not argue genetic semantics), it’s guaranteed to make your Monday a little brighter.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ouA24T1Tz-Y&feature=youtu.be
Keep checking in with us, as we keep you informed about the latest Game of Thrones news.
3 comments
Ah, the business of Hollywood; you got to hate it.
EW ‘s quote alludes to the point that GOT will be early in 2019 not because it wants to appease the fretful fans that you are, but because it wants to get the show Emmy eligible for sooner than later to snatch the crown back away from Netflix. The March or April return is just a sheer business move.
Honestly, I’m all for more Emmy’s for GOT, so I’m not really fretting one way or another. The show will be out when it’s out, and I’d prefer that they give us a polished final project than rush something out. The problem is, there’s no news at the moment, so news websites, and then fans, are making mountains out of every molehill. At this point, it would be best for HBO just to give us a premiere date. The rumor mill is getting very tiring for everyone involved.
HBO always plays premiere dates close to the vest. As the news editor here I understand the frustration.
They also hold tight information on what is in development. Sometimes I don’t hear about a project I reported on and, the next thing you know, it is going to series someplace else. Again, the annoying part of the business.