HBO
Now that the final episode of Game of Thrones Season 7 is airing, fans are already wondering how long they will have to wait before they can see their favorite show again. Although HBO has not announced a premiere date yet, we know based on information released so far and past production schedules that the premiere is a long time away. At least a year.
Nikolaj Coster-Waldau (Jamie) told Collider that the cast will start filming Season 8 in October. He said:
I knew what was going to happen for the first three seasons. After that, it’s been a season at a time. You get the scripts a month before we start shooting, or six weeks, and then you know what’s going to happen that season. But, I don’t know what’s going to happen next season. We go back in October, so maybe in the next few weeks, we’ll get the scripts and I’ll find out. I’m very curious.”
This is about a month later than when Season 7 started filming. That season was supposed to start filming in the middle of the summer, but because of production requirements and a late start to winter where it was filming, the season didn’t start filming until September. Then it filmed from September to February. Every season of Game of Thrones so far has filmed for six months, and even though Season 7 was shorter, it was no exception.
After concluding filming in February, Season 7 premiered in July rather than the show’s typical mid-spring premiere.
With all this in mind, it’s very likely that Season 8 will also take six months to film, even though it’s one episode shorter. There have been rumors that the season’s episodes may be even longer than Season 7 (we definitely hope this is the case.)
If Season 8 starts filming in October and ends filming in March — a full six months — then it’s possible that the one month later start in filming will also mean that the show will premiere one month later than Season 7.
Essentially, the earliest that Season 8 will likely premiere is in August 2018.
There have been a few disturbing rumors that the show might not even premiere until 2019. EW was one of the first to report this possibility.
So it looks like we have a wide range of possibilities for the premiere date, at the moment, ranging from August 2018 to early 2019. When do you think Season 8 will premiere?
