"Game of Thrones" season 7 is being delayed as the production is waiting for the winter season in order to film the snowy scenes. A report from Entertainment Weekly reveals that the show's premiere is also being pushed back as far as summer 2017 and that the seventh season will only have a total of 7 episodes instead of 10.
This would indicate that season 7 will not be premiering in April and instead could be pushed as far back as June or July 2017 depending on when post-production for the show is done and when HBO's timeslots are open. HBO is likely not going to air "Game of Thrones" when they have yet another show to prioritize, such as "Westworld."
With only 7 episodes it also indicates that there will be much less fluff shoe-horned into the show. Fans have pointed out in the past that there are a few episodes per season that could have been trimmed down but were included anyway in order to ensure each season got a full 10 episode length. That is no longer the case with season 7.
Season 8 is also set to be shorter with a speculated 6 or 7 episodes to end the series.
According to the report, the production team is also going to be filming primarily in Ireland, Iceland and Spain. It is noted that it has been a few years since the team filmed in Iceland, a location primarily used for filming scenes North of the Wall, back when Jon Snow (Kit Harington) and a group of Nights Watch members were hunting the Wildlings.
It is speculated that the Iceland set will not just be used for scenes Beyond the Wall but also for Winterfell and other Northern locations in Westeros given that Winter has now arrived and along with it the villains known as the White Walkers.
HBO has yet to confirm an exact release date for "Game of Thrones" season 7.
