Game Of Thrones Season 7 Premiere Is Longest Premiere Episode Since Pilot

02/16/2018 11:59 am EST

There may only be a relative few episodes of Game of Thrones left, but HBO is planning on making those episodes count.

According to The Telegraph, the Game of Thrones Season 7 premiere episode will have a runtime of 59 minutes. That's the longest runtime for a premiere episode of Game of Thrones since the series premiere, which ran for 62 minutes. The average episode of Game of Thrones runs for 55 minutes.

This has led to increased speculation that the show's remaining episodes will all be longer than average. This would make up for there only being 13 episodes of the show left to cover the massive wars coming with Daenerys sailing to Westeros and the Night King moving south. HBO has not confirmed any such plans.

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The longer runtime may explain the increased effort that's gone into the show's seventh season. According to the stars of the hit fantasy drama, the final two seasons of Game of Thrones will also have a faster pace than the previous six.

Based on the popular book series A Song of Ice and Fire, by George R.R. Martin, the hit Emmy-winning fantasy series Game of Thrones chronicles an epic struggle for power in a vast and violent kingdom.

The seventh season of Game of Thrones will see Daenerys Targaryen finally make her way from Essos to Westeros to reclaim the Iron Throne, while the Night King's White Walker army marches south, bringing winter with him.

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Game of Thrones stars Emmy and Golden Globe winner Peter Dinklage, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Lena Headey, Emilia Clarke, Aidan Gillen, Kit Harington, Diana Rigg, Sophie Turner, Maisie Williams and Jonathan Pryce. Executive producers are David Benioff, D.B. Weiss, Carolyn Strauss, Frank Doelger, Bernadette Caulfield. Co-executive producers are Guymon Casady, Vince Gerardis, George R.R. Martin.

Game of Thrones Season 7 premieres July 16 on HBO.

Game of Thrones may only have two seasons left, but HBO is already making plans to extend its stay in the world of Westeros and Essos. Multiple prequel scripts have already been ordered for a prequel series that will take place in the same universe, but that will not feature the same characters or be based on any story published by George R.R. Martin so far, though he is working with some of the prequel writers to develop the new series.

Game of Thrones showrunners D.B. Weiss and David Benioff have also stated that they will not be involved in developing the new shows, though they will receive some form of an official credit since the spinoffs will be derivative of their original series.

Photo Credit: HBO

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