‘Game Of Thrones’ Spoilers: Longest Episode Ever Is Coming In Season 7, And It’s Shocking
Season 7 of Game of Thrones is just around the corner, and spoilers about the episodes lengths have been revealed. That’s right fans, the longest episode in the show’s tenure will air in the upcoming season.
Game of Thrones fans are some of the most loyal in the entertainment industry, and many were disappointed when they learned there would only be seven episodes in Season 7. Viewers have been spoiled by the traditional 10 episodes-per-season, but new information has come to light regarding episode length.
Happily, Season 7 will include a 90-minute episode! The season’s finale will boast the hour and a half episode, but it’s not the only one which will run longer than the normal 55-minutes-to-an-hour show.
Showrunner Dan Weiss broke the news to EW.
“We have two episodes over 60 minutes this year.”
Fellow showrunner David Benioff also had some notes to add.
“One will be our longest episode ever — it’s coming in around 90 minutes. Another is going to be our shortest episode at 50 minutes.”
Game of Thrones will be airing both its longest and shortest episode ever this season, but the 50-minute mark isn’t unusual for the show. Before you get upset about this short episode, remember there have been many like it in the past.
There have been several episodes which have concluded just over the 50-minute mark. Season 2’s “Garden of Bones,” Season 3’s “The Rains of Castamere,” Season 4’s “The Laws of Gods and Men,” “Mockingbird,” and “The Waters on the Wall,” Season 5’s “Sons of the Harpy,” and Season 6’s “The Red Woman” and “Blood of My Blood” all ended at or under 51 minutes.
The previous record holder for the longest episode was none other than the Season 6 finale, “The Winds of Winter.” Finales for every season — with the exception of Season 1 — all have longer air times than previous episodes in the season.
The Game of Thrones spoiler website, Watchers on the Wall, released episode lengths a few days ago for all seven episodes, just before the official news broke from HBO. The reported runtimes are as follows.
- Episode 1: 59 minutes
- Episode 2: 59 minutes
- Episode 3: 63 minutes
- Episode 4: 50 minutes
- Episode 5: 59 minutes
- Episode 6: 71 minutes
- Episode 7: 81 minutes
But these runtimes have already been partially debunked by showrunners themselves. Although they are nine minutes off on the last episode of the season, one of their numbers does coincide with another HBO has given.
The only official airtime mentioned by HBO, other than for the finale, is for the premiere episode, which will run 59 minutes. Some fans assume that, even though there are fewer episodes in Season 7, there’s a likelihood it will have the same amount of airtime as the season’s before it. The show already has an extra 30 minutes more than normal with the new record-breaking episode. However, as nice as that would be, there’s no possible way Season 7 could have the same amount of airtime as the seasons before it.
Game of Thrones seasons typically run around nine to 10 hours. Given the information at hand, it doesn’t seem likely Season 7 will garner the same amount of airtime. Estimations have it between seven and eight hours, and based on the times Weiss and Benioff gave, the maximum amount of time the show could run is seven hours and 45 minutes. Sorry fans!
If you think seven episodes are not enough, Season 8 will end the series in just six episodes. The chance of these episodes running longer is more than likely, as other series ending seasons have done this in the past. Six hours would surely not suffice for Game of Thrones fans.
Season 7 of Game of Thrones returns July 17 on HBO. What are you looking forward to most in the upcoming season? Let us know in the comments below.
[Featured Image by HBO]
