'Game of Thrones' Fans Mad About Season 8 Premiere's 'Short' Episode

Fans couldn't get enough of the Game of Thrones Season 8 premiere on Sunday, and many felt like [...]

By Michael Hein

Fans couldn't get enough of the Game of Thrones Season 8 premiere on Sunday, and many felt like they literally didn't.

Warning! Spoilers for Game of Thrones Season 8, Episode 1 lie ahead!

Game of Thrones returned after two full years on hiatus, and many felt that the premiere was just too short. After many lofty promises that the shortened season would have commensurately longer, more cinematic episodes, the first one came in at just under an hour. This was devastating to some fans, who were hoping for the equivalent of six movies in the coming weeks.

"I can't believe that's it. That's the episode," one fan tweeted. "I really have to wait a whole nother (sic) week after that short a- episode."

"51 minutes. @GameOfThrones this better be the shortest episode because this was too short," added another.

"YOU REALLY GONNA SHORT CHANGE ME AND END IT THERE?!?!???" wrote another incredulously.

The writers, producers and stars have been talking about the extra-long episodes in Game of Thrones Season 8, though the official run times were revealed a few weeks ago.

The premiere episode was reportedly 54 minutes long, and next week's will be 58 minutes. Episode 3 will then be a full 60 minutes long, and after that things will really start to speed up.

Episode 4 of the season (airing on May 5) will be 78 minutes long. Finally, the last two episodes of the season will be 80 minutes each, coming close to the length of a feature film.

This is far from the full six movies many fans were hoping for, and some might be wishing they were getting a normal 10 episode season instead. Still, in today's day and age, it is always harder to watch a show week by week when audiences are so used to binge-watching on streaming platforms.

While the episode might have been short, it was certainly eventful. The Season 8 premiere provided fans with several long-awaited character reunions, including Jon and Arya, Arya and Gendry and Sansa and Tyrion, among others. It also made some huge revelations to our heroes, including Daenerys finding out that the Night King has her dragon, and Jon Snow learning the truth of his parentage.

We can only hope that the coming weeks bring just as many cathartic moments in Westeros. Game of Thrones airs on Sundays at 9 p.m. ET on HBO.

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