HBOThere’s a little under one month to go until the final season of Game of Thrones arrives, and to keep fans excited – as if they need any help – HBO have finally revealed how long each new episode is set to be.
The run time of the first two episodes was released earlier this week, as the network updated its schedule to reveal the first episode, which will air in the US on April 14, will last approximately 54 minutes.
Similarly, the second episode is set to be 58 minutes.
While any amount of Game of Thrones action is of course exciting, these run times aren’t necessarily a huge surprise. It’s fairly typical for a show to last around an hour, so HBO aren’t really pushing the boundaries here.
HBOHowever, the creators are clearly just easing viewers in with the first couple of episodes, because details about the rest of the series have now been released, and the cinematic vision kicks in from the third instalment.
According to IndieWire, HBO provided the remaining estimated run times in a press release, revealing episode three of the final season will essentially be a GoT movie, lasting one hour, 22 minutes.
If you don’t think that’s long enough for a movie, Toy Story runs at one hour, 21 minutes proves you wrong.
The good news is, the episode lengths stay pretty consistent from there, with episode four lasting 78 minutes, and the final two dramatic instalments running for 80 minutes each.
As the air date draws ever nearer, fans are slowly learning more about what to expect from the explosive final series of the hugely popular show.
Earlier this month the first official trailer for the show was released, giving a few clues, albeit cryptic ones, as to what’s in store for the characters.
Check it out here:
The scenes show everyone advancing swiftly towards Winterfell, as Jon Snow warns ‘our enemy doesn’t tire, doesn’t stop, doesn’t feel’. It seems, so long after winter was first deemed to be on the way, that it’s finally here.
Speaking to Entertainment Weekly, director David Nutter promised the epic episodes will be worth the wait.
HBOHe said:
The fans will not be let down. There are a lot of firsts in these episodes.
There’s the funniest sequence I’ve ever shot on this show, the most emotional and compelling scene I’ve ever shot, and there’s one scene where there’s so many [major characters] together it feels like you’re watching a superhero movie.
Bring on the final season!
Season 8 of Game of Thrones will air in the US on HBO on April 14 and Sky Atlantic early April 15 morning in the UK.
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Emily Brown first began delivering important news stories aged just 13, when she launched her career with a paper round. She graduated with a BA Hons in English Language in the Media from Lancaster University, and went on to become a freelance writer and blogger. Emily contributed to The Sunday Times Travel Magazine and Student Problems before becoming a journalist at UNILAD, where she works on breaking news as well as longer form features.