Game Of Thrones Season 8 Runtimes Are Shorter Than Expected [Updated]
Thankfully, they're (mostly) still longer than normal.
Update: HBO have updated their website with new information about Episode 3, which is 1 hour 22 minutes, rather than the previously revealed 60 minutes (which was seemingly a placeholder). The article has been amended to reflect that.
HBO have been promising for a long time now that Game of Thrones Season 8, which is only six episodes, would feature supersized instalments to go out with a bang - and now those runtimes have been officially revealed.
In January, it was reported that the first two episodes would be 60 minutes, with the other four clocking in at 80, although the exact figures made this seem like a placeholder with the episodes not yet fully cut. Now the lengths have been revealed on HBO's official schedule:
- Episode 1: 54 minutes
- Episode 2: 58 minutes
- Episode 3: 82 minutes
- Episode 4: 78 minutes
- Episode 5: 80 minutes
- Episode 6: 80 minutes
A couple of those runtimes are certainly shorter than some of the figures that were previously bandied about, with HBO programming president Casey Bloys at one point suggesting we'd be seeing 90-120 minute episodes, which was then walked back to "50-90". The first two episodes are simply regular length for Game of Thrones, which means we're starting off standard rather than super sized.
The next four, however, should make up for things. Each one is just about the same length as The Dragon and the Wolf, which is currently the longest episode to date, and the runtimes of them together effectively means an extra episode and then some in Season 8. It also means that the Battle of Winterfell, which we already knew was longer than Helm's Deep, is going to be the longest ever episode of the series. It gives an average of 72 minutes per episode, which is comfortably longer than any other season.
We're still a couple of months out from those airing too, so it is possible the final edits haven't been locked in, but for now they're pretty official. Is that enough time to wrap-up this epic story in a satisfying way? Let's hope so.
Are you excited for Game of Thrones? What do you think is going to happen? Let us know down in the comments.