For the past couple of months, it has been rumored that the "Game of Thrones" season 8 episodes will be longer than the previous ones, but the series will not air until 2019. These might be true, as actor Liam Cunningham, who plays Ser Davos Seaworth, dropped details about the upcoming series, revealing that each episode will probably have an extended time than the standard hour.
Despite having fewer episodes, the eighth installment will take even more time to film. Cunningham told TV Guide the reason why this new season will take longer than any other seasons. He explained, "[The episodes are] definitely going to be bigger and what I hear is longer."
The actor went on to say, "We're filming right up until the summer. When you think about it, up until last season we'd have six months to do ten episodes, so we're [doing] way more than that for six episodes. So that obviously will translate into longer episodes."
Since the final season will include only six episodes, it is no doubt that HBO will lengthen the time. However, series creators D.B. Weiss and David Benioff still do not know how long each episode will run until the editing process.
Meanwhile, sound editor Paula Fairfield previously teased during the Con of Thrones that HBO was considering feature-length episodes for "Game of Thrones" season 8. It can be recalled that three episodes of season 7 ran longer than the usual airtime, so it is not surprising if the final installments may also have extended times.
With the filming for the eighth run is not set to start until later this month, it looks like the production will continue into next year. Creator Weiss and Benioff even wanted to spend a year and a half shooting this upcoming season, which means that it may likely be released in 2019. Nothing is official yet since HBO has not confirmed any of the reports.
