‘Game of Thrones’ Fans Infuriated Over Leaked Lengths of Season 8 Episodes

Winter is coming, and with it, an army of angry fans disappointed with the Game of Thrones Season […]

March 13, 2019, 3:48pm

Winter is coming, and with it, an army of angry fans disappointed with the Game of Thrones Season 8 episode runtimes.

After being promised episodes spanning the “length of a feature film,” with rumors that some episodes would near or surpass the 2-hour mark, Game of Thrones fans were left more than just a little disappointed after HBO confirmed the runtimes for the final season’s first two episodes at 54-minutes and 58-minutes, with the longest episode of the season set to tick in at only 80 minutes.

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Assembling their army as fast as the Night King assembles his army of white walkers, disgruntled fans aired their grievances on social media, demanding lengthier episodes.

“I’m really disappointed. I thought the first couple of episodes would be 80 mins and the rest 90 mins,” one GoT fan wrote.

Another person questioned the length that the episodes will be shortened to within those time limits, writing “How much of this time is dedicated to the episode, and how much to that crap they show at the end ‘making of.’ In the past they’ve counted that in the runtimes.”

Others couldn’t help but point out that, given the six-episode final season and the number of storylines left to tie up, if the series would be able to end on a satisfying note.

“How are they possibly going to tie up all the loose ends in only 6 slightly longer than average episodes?” one person asked.

One fan was quick to point out that the “longest consecutive battle sequence ever committed to film,” the Battle of Winterfell, which took 11 weeks of night shoots to complete, would somehow be crammed into a mere 60-minutes in the untitled third episode.

“The Battle of Winterfell only 60 minutes ?? !!” they wrote. “what a disappointment! they said that there would be 6 episodes equivalent to 6 movies …”

Prior to the release of the episode lengths, HBO’s CEO Richard Plepler had teased that Season 8 was a “spectacle” boasting what could only be described as “six movies” rather than episodes.

Director David Nutter had also alleged that they were “dancing around the bigger numbers” and that “Season 8 episodes will all I think be longer than 60 minutes.”

You can see a full list of episode runtimes and their airdates below: