While Game of Thrones‘ eighth season will have the fewest number of episodes ever, it’s being reported that production might take just as much time filming as before.
Actor Liam Cunningham who plays Ser Davos Seaworth told TV Guide on Thursday that though the number of episodes will be shorter, he guarantees the fans will be pleased.
Videos by PopCulture.com
“[They’re] definitely going to be bigger and what I hear is longer,” Cunningham said. “We’re filming right up until the summer. When you think about it, up until last season we’d have six months to do ten episodes, so we’re [doing] way more than that for six episodes. So that obviously will translate into longer episodes.”
However, Ian Glen, who plays Ser Jorah Mormont, told The Independent that the reason they are taking longer for production time has to do with location.
“I think this last season will take much longer to shoot because they can only use one unit because we’re all in the same sort of scenes,” Glen said. “We’re all starting to occupy the same territory, we’re all starting to be in the same storylines and so they can’t [have two filming units] anymore.”
The HBO series usually shoots for about six months, typically wrapping in December, like season seven that aired in the summer for the first time and was shot from August to February. As of now, season eight, the final season, will start shooting Oct. 8 and continue until next summer.
As for production length, the showrunners told Entertainment Weekly they plan to spend a year and a half making the final season, which will roll out in 2019.
