While the world awaits what new horrors are in store for our favorite characters on Game of Thrones season 6, premiering this coming Sunday, HBO has unsurprisingly extended our stay in Westeros. The network formally announced today that Game of Thrones season 7 is officially coming down the pipeline, in addition to new season renewals for Silicon Valley and Veep for 2017.
Game of Thrones showrunners D.B. Weiss and David Benioff recently said that they’re coming “down to our final 13 episodes after this season. We’re heading into the final lap.” While Benioff clarified that “that’s the guess” and “nothing is yet set in stone,” it would seem that season 8 would be the last for the hit fantasy drama, which would leave only seven episodes for season 7 and six for the final run. Everyone involved has been teasing a pretty dramatic season 6 and now that we’re getting down to the wire, no one is safe, in case you didn’t learn that from last season’s finale.
Meanwhile, HBO’s programming president, Michael Lombardo, said that there are no plans to churn out any Game of Thrones spinoffs, which is just another way to prolong our suffering. But, frankly, that too isn’t official and author George R.R. Martin has teased a possible spinoff idea. So who knows?
In the meantime, the renewals of Silicon Valley and Veep aren’t surprising, either. This trio marks HBO’s most successful original programs and have collectively racked up a number of Emmy and Golden Globe wins and nominations. HBO recently canceled Togetherness and is having difficulty with Vinyl, a series with a high production budget and little payoff. Coming down the pipeline are the limited series The Night Of with John Turturro, the second season of Ballers with Dwayne Johnson, Vice Principals with Danny McBride, Divorce with Sarah Jessica Parker, High Maintenance based on the popular web series, and that Westworld adaptation, which recently resumed production after taking some time to right the ship.
The new seasons of Game of Thrones, Veep, and Silicon Valley premiere this coming Sunday, April 24th, on HBO.
