Want more Game of Thrones? You’re in luck, as the word is that the upcoming third season will have longer episodes than previous seasons. The epic HBO fantasy series has promised big things in 2013, and it looks like the network is adding more time to live up to those promises.
Season 3 takes on the book A Storm of Swords, and already the producers have split the book into two seasons to cover all of the material. But now JoBlo says they’re also going to make the episodes longer. In fact, nearly an entire extra episode of time will be added over the season, by adding a little time to each episode. Showrunner David Benioff refers to it as “a super-sized season" and explains the new time structure.
“A super-sized season, as befitting Storm of Swords. Last year we had a lot of 52-minute episodes. This year is a lot of 56, 57.”
While an "hour long" on HBO can mean anything between 50 and 60 minutes, last year a lot of the episodes came in around the low 50’s. This year, we can expect more episodes to come close to that 60-minute mark, and the network even says we could see a finale “very possibly exceeding 60 minutes.” Considering how much material there is to work with in the George R.R. Martin books on which it’s based, every minute is going to count.
Game of Thrones really does seem to be gearing up for a very big season. As we already told you a few days ago, the network is even launching a beer themed after the show to coincide with the season premiere, and more beers to come in the future. Perfect for toasting the new season and those extra minutes.
Season 3 of Game of Thrones premieres on March 31st, 2013 on HBO.
