All the scenes have been shot. In fact, Game of Thrones news site “Watchers on the Wall” said filming officially wrapped two months ago. Of course, there is still editing to be done and promotional interviews and articles to be written. But since everything has been filmed, surely HBO could give us a firm premiere date for the farewell season of their signature series.
But instead, all we’ve gotten is vague hints from different people with the network of a release date “sometime in 2019” with nothing concrete to hang our hopes on.
Well, HBO released a really big clue earlier this week when they put out their official season preview video for the 2018/19 television year.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MQ3bkavUSWY
Now, I know that is a fair amount of material to sift through. But the good news is we really only have to focus on three programs other than GOT in that clip: The Deuce, True Detective, and Big Little Lies.
All of these and Game of Thrones are the shows that will appear in the 9 pm eastern/8 central time slot on Sunday nights where HBO likes to place its top dramas.
And starting September 9th, “The Deuce” ( a show I’ve never heard of starring Kirsten Dunst and James Franco) will air its second season. That second season is nine episodes, meaning it will end on November 4th.
That brings us to the holiday season, and I don’t think HBO will debut anything during the 8 remaining Sundays of 2018. But even if they did, it will not be the three remaining shows mentioned above because all three have been promised for 2019.
Now, at the end of “Sharp Objects” (a fantastic miniseries that ended this past Sunday in the 9/8 slot), HBO previewed the third season of True Detective and promised a January premiere date. So that means that True Detective must begin sometime between January 6th-January 27th.
The previous two seasons of True Detective featured 8 episodes, so let’s assume they follow the same format. So after 8 episodes, it will be March, which seems to work perfectly for the premiere of Big Little Lies.
So somewhere between March 3rd-March 24th, Big Little Lies will premiere its 2nd season. It is expected to run 7 episodes (just like the first season), which will put its conclusion somewhere between April 14th-May 5th.
And unless there is something HBO is holding back, that puts Game of Thrones premiere date somewhere between April 21st and May 12th.
But I’m not going to just finish this writing with some vague time frame. I don’t see any reason HBO would not start True Detective January 6th. The holidays will be over and most networks will have started their winter/spring seasons at this point.
And a January 6th start date for True Detective means Game of Thrones’s final season will premiere on…..
April 21st.
Now, if HBO takes any Sundays off (like during the Super Bowl), that would obviously change the timeline. And there’s also the GOT spin-off series expected sometime after GOT goes off the air. I would think HBO would want to have at least one of those series ready to preview during Game of Thrones’s final season. So if there is a delay in production for any of those shows, that could influence HBO to delay season 8.
Hopefully, we’ll get confirmation regarding this date sooner rather than later. But until then, stay patient while HBO milks their golden calf for all it’s worth.