Game of Thrones Season 7 Delayed: Find Out Why the Wait Will Be Even Longer Than Usual

Find out why the HBO hit won't be returning on its usual schedule

By Billy Nilles Jul 06, 2016 7:16 PMTags
Kit Harington, Game of ThronesHBO

Don't shoot the messenger, Game of Thrones fans, but we've got some bad news.

Not only will season seven of the HBO hit be shorter than usual, but co-creators David Benioff and D.B. Weiss have revealed that it's going to take a bit longer for the season to make its way to our TVs, too. In an interview on the UFC Unfiltered podcast, they explained that the major development in the final episode of season six (think about Sansa's grim weather forecast) will necessitate a delay in production on the shortened season.

"We don't have an air date yet," Benioff and Weiss said. "We're starting a bit later because at the end of this season, 'Winter is here'—and that means that sunny weather doesn't really serve our purposes any more. So we kind of pushed everything down the line, so we could get some grim, grey weather even in the sunnier places that we shoot."

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10 Things We Must See in Game of Thrones Season 7
HBO

Traditionally, for each of its prior six seasons, GoT has premiered anywhere between late March and late April, but it's clear that won't be happening. We've got a feeling it takes a bit too long to digitally add in Dany's dragons and those White Walkers, not to mention the endless other digital special effects the show employs, to turn the show around that quickly after filming wraps in the dreary winter months.

Of course, this isn't the only bit of bad news facing Game of Thrones fans as the show enters into its endgame. Shortly after season six finished airing last month, Benioff and Weiss reiterated that there weren't many episodes left in the show's run. "It's two more seasons we're talking about. From pretty close to the beginning, we talked about doing this in 70-75 hours, and that's what we'll end up with," Benioff told Deadline. "Call it 73 for now." (For those not keeping score at home, each of the six seasons aired have been comprised of 10 episodes each, meaning we've already seen 60 hours of GoT and we've only got, at most, 15 left—to be split over two seasons.)

Are you as bummed as we are about the longer wait facing us until season seven? Let us know in the comments below.

Game of Thrones returns to HBO sometime in 2017.

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