The longest episode ever of Game of Thrones will air next week as the Battle of Winterfell finally arrives.
While the first two episodes had the standard one hour long runtime, the last four will all be longer with episode three being the most lengthy at one hour and 22 minutes.
Time for us in the UK to start stocking up on our midnight snacks.
Last month HBO revealed the runtime for each of the final season’s six episodes which are as follows:
Episode one – 54 minutes
Episode two – 58 minutes
Episode three – 82 minutes
Episode four – 78 minutes
Episode five – 79 minutes
Episode six – 79 minutes
You can watch a trailer for the upcoming episode here:
The feature-length episode is arguably the one fans are most looking forward to as they are eager to see the characters fight to the death in a truly epic fashion.
The Battle of Winterfell will see fan favourites including Jon Snow (Kit Harington), Daenerys Targaryen (Emilia Clarke), Tyrion Lannister (Peter Dinklage), Arya Stark (Maisie Williams), Sansa Stark (Sophie Turner), and Brienne of Tarth (Gwendoline Christie) form an uneasy alliance as they come up against the Night King and his supernatural army.
Game of Thrones is famous for pushing the boundaries of what can be achieved on the small screen, but the cast and crew promise the battle episode will be the most spectacular of all.
Co-executive producer Bryan Cogman described next week’s episode as ‘unprecedented’ to Entertainment Weekly.
He said:
What we have asked the production team and crew to do this year truly has never been done in television or in a movie. This final face-off between the Army of the Dead and the army of the living is completely unprecedented and relentless and a mixture of genres even within the battle.
There are sequences built within sequences built within sequences. David and Dan [wrote] an amazing puzzle and Miguel came in and took it apart and put it together again. It’s been exhausting but I think it will blow everybody away.
The hype surrounding the episode has never been higher so I really hope fans aren’t let down by it.
Shooting the battle was as brutal as the fight itself as over 750 people worked on the grueling night shoots which lasted for 11 weeks.
Iain Glen, who plays Ser Jorah Mormont, admitted he was glad when the cameras stopped rolling:
It was the most unpleasant experience I’ve had on Thrones. A real test, really miserable.
You get to sleep at seven in the morning and when you wake in the midday you’re still so spent you can’t really do anything, and then you’re back.
You have no life outside it. You have an absolute f—ked bunch of actors.
Hopefully the hard work has paid off!
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