Game of Thrones season 8: HBO boss confirms eighth season will be show's last

But Benioff and Weiss have been in early talks about a spin-off series

Production on Game of Thrones season seven has been delayed due to insufficiently wintry conditions ((Pic: HBO))

The eighth season of Game of Thrones will definitely be its last, an HBO executive has confirmed. Casey Bloys, the premium cable network’s new president of programming, confirmed to journalists at the Television Critics Association’s summer press tour in Los Angeles on Saturday that the world’s favourite tits-and-dragons-themed TV fantasy drama would come to an end after two more seasons.

GoT Showrunners DB Weiss and David Benioff “have a very specific plan about the number of seasons they want to do,” Bloys said, according to the Hollywood Reporter. “If I could get them to do more, I would take 10 seasons, but we want to take their lead with what they could do and what the best version of the show is.”

The show was recently renewed for a seventh season of just seven episodes. Its producers have said previously that they imagine a total of 75 episodes, of which the first six seasons comprised 60. That would leave eight more episodes for the eighth and final season, though Benioff and Weiss have also talked about season eight consisting of a mere six episodes.

With Winter having come to Westeros, production has been delayed until the weather back in the real world is sufficiently frosty, meaning the seventh season won’t reach screens until next summer. Previous seasons have premiered in the Spring.

There have also been early conversations about the prospect of a spin-off series, Bloys said. “It’s not something I'm opposed to but it has to make sense creatively,” he explained. “I’m not sure the guys can wrap their heads around it when they are about to start production. We're open to it; the guys arent opposed to it but there's no concrete plans right now.”