‘Game Of Thrones’ Season 7: The Season May Be Short, But The Premiere Episode Isn’t

HBO’s Game of Thrones is set to premiere in July with one of its longest running premiere episodes since the pilot for Season 1 aired. This is great news for fans who are still saddened by the news the final two seasons of Game of Thrones will only run 13 episodes in its entirety, as compared to the normal 10 episodes per season.

Season 7 of HBO’s Game of Thrones will run with only seven episodes instead of the normal 10 episodes per season. But, according to a screenshot taken by the Telegraph, Episode 1 of Season 7 will be the longest premiere episode since the pilot episode. According to HBO’s programming, Episode 1 of Game of Thrones Season 7 will run for 59 minutes. The pilot episode only beat this time slightly, clocking in at 62 minutes when it first debuted in 2011. The programming schedule for Game of Thrones, which premieres its seventh season on July 16, still shows the run time of 59 minutes.

But is this a long time for the average Game of Thrones episode? After all, most fans usually lock in an hour to view each episode, so this time doesn’t seem particularly long. However, some episodes of Game of Thrones actually run shorter than this time, while others run over. On average, though, most episodes of Game of Thrones, according to HBO’s programming schedule, run in the vicinity of 50-58 minutes.

Other episodes that also included a run time of 59 minutes include: “The Pointy End” (Season 1, Episode 9), “Two Swords” (Season 4, Episode 1), “The Gift” (Season 5, Episode 7), “Book of the Stranger” (Season 6, Episode 4), and “No One” (Season 6, Episode 8).

There have also been some episodes that have run longer than 59 minutes. Besides the pilot episode of Game of Thrones, the following episodes have run even longer than 62 minutes: “Valar Morghulis” (64 minutes, Season 2 finale, Episode 10), “Mhysa” (63 minutes, Season 3 finale, Episode 10), “The Children” (66 minutes, Season 4 finale, Episode 10), “High Sparrow” (60 minutes, Episode 3, Season 5), “Hardhome” (60 minutes, Season 5, Episode 8), “Mother’s Mercy” (61 minutes, Season 5 finale, Episode 10), and “Battle of the Bastards” (Season 6, Episode 9).

The Season 6 finale (titled “The Winds of Winter”) of was the longest running episode ever for Game of Thrones. “The Winds of Winter” clocked in at a whopping 68 minutes.

As you can see, HBO prefers to run their season finales longer than most episodes, indicating that if Episode 1 of Season 7 of Game of Thrones is already 59 minutes long, the finale could likely run over the 60-minute mark. Although, if Season 4 premiered with an episode running for the same length of time as the Season 7 premiere, perhaps fans can expect the finale for Season 7 to run for approximately 66 minutes, just like the Season 4 finale. As yet, though, there is no indication of this or for how long subsequent episodes of Season 7 will run for and fans will just have to tune into the new season of Game of Thrones to find out for themselves.

However, considering many fans are lamenting the demise of Game of Thrones, perhaps HBO will accommodate a lack of episodes with fleshing out each episode so they run over the usual air time. Although, is a few minutes here and there really worth it? Will fans even notice? Regardless, the Game of Thrones showrunners, David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, are determined to create a quality program for the remaining seasons of Game of Thrones over churning out quantity, even if HBO Programming President, Casey Bloys, would be happy for the series to run for 10 seasons.

You can watch the official trailer for Season 7 of Game of Thrones below.

You can check out the breakdown of this Season 7 trailer via this previous Inquisitr article.

Are you looking forward to Season 7 of HBO’s Game of Thrones? Let us know by commenting below.

Season 7 of HBO’s Game of Thrones will premiere on July 16, 2017.

[Featured Image by Helen Sloan/HBO]