Will the final season by any chance be an extended one?

[aFeastForDragons]

All that Matters is a great story with a great end

I think all of us here would prefer to read your ending George, not HBO's.

[boojam]

I am surprised that so many people wants a longer show.

Is it a surprise George would like a long series and/or a movie?

[lojzelote]

Is it a surprise George would like a long series and/or a movie?

Maybe not George, but his readers shouldn't mind. Let's be real, there isn't even a snowflake's chance in hell that he would finish ADoS before the 8/9/likely 10th season anyway. We would be spoiled all the same and watch plenty of irrelevant scenes at top of that.

[Faint]

The worst of all worlds is if Benioff and Weiss actually use up 90% of the material and then HBO hires new showrunners to extend the final 10% over three seasons. I do not see that happening though.

[White Harbors Wrath]

The new producers could be even worse than D&D at making up filler too lol.

[FireAndBlood.]

Why are people even discussing the possibility of HBO intervening and extending the series? I mean, yes they are a business and their goal is to make money, but that kind of thing is so not their style.

[boojam]

Why are people even discussing the possibility of HBO intervening and extending the series? I mean, yes they are a business and their goal is to make money, but that kind of thing is so not their style.

We shall see ... this show is on the verge of becoming a hit as big as Star Wars or Harry Potter and that gets Big Daddy Time-Warner's molecules all athrill so lets see how the numbers for S5 go.

If they go off scale I am expecting a move to territory not in HBO's domain before.

[Jack Bauer 24]

We shall see ... this show is on the verge of becoming a hit as big as Star Wars or Harry Potter and that gets Big Daddy Time-Warner's molecules all athrill so lets see how the numbers for S5 go.

If they go off scale I am expecting a move to territory not in HBO's domain before.

This. They've never had a phenomenon this white hot before. Season 5 premiere is going to be massive.

[boojam]

I am wonder now what D&D think?

Condensing Feast and Dance into one season probably made sense before season 4 , they maybe didn't think GOT would beat The Sopranos last season by a good margin.

Could be season 5 will beat season 4 by a wide margin, then what?

Will there be some rethinking?

There already seems to be some rethinking.

There is material to bring forward to season 6 , if need be, which may be being done right now.

[boojam]

So from Variety

April 15 2015

Not sure what this means?

Variety: How many more seasons do you see this going?

Benioff: We’ve got a very definitive idea of how much longer it is, and we’re getting there. We’ve just started writing episodes for season six. I think we’re heading into the home stretch. Hopefully, we’ll have a clear answer soon.

We could go another four years — and we could come up with good stories — but the one thing that really got us excited when we pitched this to HBO was that this isn’t just a regular series. It’s a real story with a beginning, a middle and an end.

We know what the end is, and we’re barreling toward it. So the idea that we’re going to try and stretch it out by an extra couple years just because we’re all having a good time doing it and people are making money off it just feels like it would be a betrayal.

[tyron]

The one thing I hate about films or television besides dragging a series out to long with tepid results, is barreling toward a completion, a rush to finish because the creators want to do something else or the show's ratings force a fast incoherent ending.

I fear D&D will delivery a forced rush to the end, greatly reducing arcs, character time or throwing out subplots already begun (hint BwB, Iron Isles, BF) just to streamline it for 7 seasons.

I would prefer a flushed out story with all previously aired subplots neatly included in the final seasons, please no wtf happened to that character or that story, and if it takes 8 seasons, then go eight seasons and place all that material back into the outline, I can easily see GoT going eight, especially with all the material left, remember Winds is going to be Swords size, with tons of high events, just like Swords, to me this means two seasons alone, but Spring was suppose to be the size of the first book, which could be done in one season.

One thing I don't want is the WW invasion of Westeros condensed to one season or less, for the sake of expendiency for 7 seasons. You cannot compellingly tell that story in so short of a time when you spend 6 seasons on the pre-invasion troubles and setup.

[boojam]

One thing I don't want is the WW invasion of Westeros condensed to one season or less, for the sake of expendiency for 7 seasons. You cannot compellingly tell that story in so short of a time when you spend 6 seasons on the pre-invasion troubles and setup.

I wish George would get on with the Other's Invasion thing, he left it hang-fire in Dance.

One odd thing, GRRM really hammers down the Winter Thing in the North in Dance, which seems to imply the invasion is eminent.

The show is doing more Winter right now , tho it looks not as full bore as it gets in the books, so I wonder how production goes next season , its gonna get expensive (tho they have the money) for VFX in snow snow snow.

Stannis and Davos are gonna need thicker coats!

[oierem]

One thing I don't want is the WW invasion of Westeros condensed to one season or less, for the sake of expendiency for 7 seasons. You cannot compellingly tell that story in so short of a time when you spend 6 seasons on the pre-invasion troubles and setup.

Isn't that what Martin is doing with the books though? Forcing the ending of the story to avoid extending the series beyond the seventh book? The WW invasion will be condensed to one book, it seems.

The one thing I hate about films or television besides dragging a series out to long with tepid results, is barreling toward a completion, a rush to finish because the creators want to do something else or the show's ratings force a fast incoherent ending.

I fear D&D will delivery a forced rush to the end, greatly reducing arcs, character time or throwing out subplots already begun (hint BwB, Iron Isles, BF) just to streamline it for 7 seasons.

Having Dany in Essos for more than five seasons is rushing things? Hinting the danger of the White Walkers for five seasons before they actually attack is rushing?

Martin's mistake was to add a huge number of minor subplots that won't matter to the overall story, while dragging the story of the main characters (by having the Stark kids almost disappear for two books and devoting multiple chapters to Jon's and Dany's rulling and Tyrion's travellings), forgetting about narrative rythm and structure (where is the climax of AFFC/ADWD?).

You can't get away with that in a TV series.

Look at the reactions in this very forum. The first episode of season 5 was considered "slow". And yet, it was much faster and tighter than the equivalent section in the books.

[mattpeto]

D&D might get talked into 10 full episodes for 2017 and 2018, but this is how I see it:

7.5 Seasons.

2016: Season 6, 10 Episodes

2017: Season 7 Part I, 7 Episodes

2018: Season 7 Part II, 8 Episodes

2018 means a whole another year of huge buzz for HBO and subscribers. It also gives them more time to find their next "GOT"

[Mel_Rose]

Isn't that what Martin is doing with the books though? Forcing the ending of the story to avoid extending the series beyond the seventh book? The WW invasion will be condensed to one book, it seems.

Having Dany in Essos for more than five seasons is rushing things? Hinting the danger of the White Walkers for five seasons before they actually attack is rushing?

Martin's mistake was to add a huge number of minor subplots that won't matter to the overall story, while dragging the story of the main characters (by having the Stark kids almost disappear for two books and devoting multiple chapters to Jon's and Dany's rulling and Tyrion's travellings), forgetting about narrative rythm and structure (where is the climax of AFFC/ADWD?).

You can't get away with that in a TV series.

Look at the reactions in this very forum. The first episode of season 5 was considered "slow". And yet, it was much faster and tighter than the equivalent section in the books.

:agree:

[TheMaxxx]

D&D might get talked into 10 full episodes for 2017 and 2018, but this is how I see it:

7.5 Seasons.

2016: Season 6, 10 Episodes

2017: Season 7 Part I, 7 Episodes

2018: Season 7 Part II, 8 Episodes

2018 means a whole another year of huge buzz for HBO and subscribers. It also gives them more time to find their next "GOT"

Actually, the contracts preclude that from happening.

The contracts signed covered seasons 5 and 6, with an option for season 7. The season 7 option was exercised, and contracts signed, there were noteworthy raises, particularly with the tier A contracts. Tier A actors went just over $300,000 per episode in a 10 episode contract for seasons 5 and 6. Season 7 contracts were an exercised option, written into the season 5 and 6 contracts before they were signed. That means the season 7 contracts the actors signed also had to be based upon 10 episodes framework.

But this is the interesting stuff, I think.

The show and the books will end the same way. That has been confirmed, and is also under contractual agreement. (In fact parent company Time Warner has taken a very aggressive stance on their intellectual property rights in some very large lawsuits with publishers of leaked information.)

But since the show, and books, 'end' doesn't mean the GoT franchise is done. Granted, it might seem a little cliche to audience members at this point, but pre-dated story lines are of course quite popular. Time Warner, presumably, also really enjoys their $4 billion+ annual revenue from motion picture production/distribution.

What I think is most likely is that when the show ends, which will be season 7, is that there will be talk and negotiations, EXTREMELY serious talk and negotiations, about a movie release that takes place on a timeline before the GoT HBO series.

Martin, of course, has been quite willing to disclose his eagerness about doing a GoT movie. Time Warner could certainly not only decide to co-produce/produce a movie, but due to their property rights, they'd been in a very good position to entertain a possible series.

In fact, based on what Time Warner has done with its ownership of DC (not only made numerous movies, but there are ALREADY 8 or 9 DC based movies slated for release between now and June 2020) I think Time Warner executives are already discussing the possibility of finding what they've been looking for since 2011: a film franchise to 'replace' the ending of Harry Potter series.

Who knows, they could even team-up with Heyday films again to co-produce. The ROI would certainly seem to be there of course, it could be another cash cow (similar to Harry Potter).

I don't know about the rest of you, but I wouldn't mind watching a movie, or series, dealing with the Targaryen Conquest, or the the reign of the Targaryen dynasty. :drunk: