Well, here's a bit of a shocker for your Friday morning read. According to THR, HBO is currently closing in on renewals for Game of Thrones season 7 and 8, with season 6 recently confirmed to premiere on April 24th. Confirmation is expected to come in very soon, but HBO hasn't made a formal announcement as of yet.
This would mark the second time that the HBO series has received the coveted dual-season renewal, following the 2014 announcement that the series would be back for seasons 5 and 6. There was word in October that the cast of the series had been given notice that there would be a seventh season and that they would all be receiving a sizable increase in pay with the next season, which is the first to officially push beyond the source material that George R.R. Martin has penned thus far. There were some expectations that Martin would have his latest tome, The Winds of Winter, prepared to precede the debut of season 6, but the author recently took to his LiveJournal to confirm that he's still months away from finishing the new volume.
Though we've yet to hear official word from HBO, this should come as a surprise to absolutely no one. Since its groundbreaking first season, Game of Thrones has proved to be a juggernaut in the premium cable landscape, a fantasy behemoth with all the blood and unregulated nudity that HBO can allow. D.B. Weiss and David Benioff have continued to fashion a stunning, enveloping world, even when the narrative itself has felt helplessly convoluted or overtly manipulative n ways that cheapen its tremendous positives. There last season, for instance, was perhaps the worst thus far in terms of storytelling that the series has seen thus far, but remained a ravishing watch, with sterling production and costume design from wall to wall. That being said, a seventh and eighth season of the series gives them plenty of room to experiment and try new things with the story that could return the series to the glory of seasons 3 and 4.
