‘Game of Thrones’ Season 8 Likely Not Releasing April 2019

The eighth and final season of Game of Thrones will likely not be released until after May 2019, meaning it will not be eligible until the 2020 Primetime Emmys.

Visual effects supervisor Joe Bauer told HuffPost early Saturday that the show will likely be skipping the 2019 Emmys.

“In two years we’ll be eligible for the Season 8 work, which is just beginning now,” Bauer explained. “We’re going to be toiling away on Season 8 until May of 2019, so it’s eight or nine months away. But the prequel is starting to shoot in February, at least the pilot. So we’ll still have quite a lot to do on Season 8 when they’re beginning.”

Bauer said his entire work schedule will be devoted to making Westeros look as good as it can until May 2019.

“So much of it comes down to timing and all that stuff. The situation changes every week. I know I’m not doing anything else but Thrones until May of next year,” he said.

The eligibility period for the 2019 Emmys ends on May 31, 2019. However, if Game of Thrones‘ final season began before the cut-off, the show could still be eligible.

This bit of news is surely disappointing for fans who hoped the season would resume in early 2019. After all, we have not seen a new episode of Game of Thrones since Aug. 27, 2017. Casey Bloys, HBO‘s president of programming, also told The Hollywood Reporter last month the new season would start in the first half of 2019.

Back in January, the U.K. tabloid Metro claimed Maisie Williams said the show would resume in April 2019, but Williams later said that story was bunk.

“Just a tweet letting you know this game of thrones release date ‘quote’ I’ve supposedly given is completely false and taken from an interview I did years ago,” she tweeted.

In the meantime, fans do have something to look forward to. The show’s seventh season was nominated for a whopping 22 Emmys, including Outstanding Drama Series. Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Peter Dinklage, Lena Headey and Diana Rigg were also nominated for their performances.

HBO is also working on Game of Thrones spin-offs. Five are in the works, but only one has already been given a green light. The network ordered a pilot for an unnamed prequel series created by Jane Goldman and George R.R. Martin. It is set thousands of years before the events in Game of Thrones, and will focus on “The Long Night,” when White Walkers first fought humans.

The 70th Annual Emmy Awards will air on Sept. 17 on NBC.

Photo credit: HBO