Winter finally came on Game of Thrones last season, and now we know when it will be returning for flocks of loyal fans. This morning, HBO's popular fantasy series announced that Game of Thrones will officially be returning to the schedule in April of 2019. You can take a look at the official announcement, below.
As you can see at the end of the video of footage from Game of Thrones, we have a premiere month if not an exact date. The show will be returning for Season 8 this coming April, returning the popular HBO's series to its rightful spring home. This should be great news for fans, as a recent comment from visual effects supervisor Joe Bauer mentioned the creative team would be toiling away at the series until May of 2019.
April was the original home for Game of Thrones when it first hit the schedule back in 2011. Subsequent seasons of the series also premiered during various weeks in April, although there have been a few snafus here and there. Namely, HBO experimented with airing the show in March back in 2013.
Season 7 was also a big departure for the series. Although fewer episodes were created for Season 7, the show's production took longer to wrap and the show missed its April window. Last time around, Game of Thrones fans got new episodes in July of 2017.
The wait will be even longer for Season 8. By the time the show premieres in April of 2019, Game of Thrones will have been off of the air for 20 months. Still, coming home to April should be a nice nod to the series' origins on the pay cable network. Assuming the show will continue to air on Sunday evenings, we'll either be able to see the premiere April 7th, 14th, 21st or 28th.
Although there are a lot of pros to this new video, I'm personally not super sold on that #ForTheThrone hashtag. I also selfishly wish the footage we get hadn't been a ton of looks back at the series so far, although the fact that HBO is promoting binge-watching the first seven seasons makes sense. A similar thing happened with AMC's event series Breaking Bad, when a lot of new fans caught up with the show just before the final season.
So far, Game of Thrones has done a pretty good job about keeping spoilers away from prying eyes and ears, but as we hit the end of the year and into next year, we should be getting real, exciting trailers for the final season of the long-running show. In addition, although spoilers haven't been rampant, on occasion, cast members have talked about the final episodes of the series and the emotional way those episodes resonated with them. All in all, we do know a few details and you can check them out with our full guide to Game Of Thrones Season 8.
When Game of Thrones returns to the schedule for Season 8, fans can expect six final episodes. In addition, like Season 7, the show is likely to feature longer episodes. However, we aren't quite sure how long they will be yet. HBO's Casey Bloys has said they won't be two hours, but a girl can dream. We will keep you up to date regarding future Game of Thrones news as soon as it drops.
