Game of Thrones won't get a single Emmy nomination next year

Season seven has been confirmed to air later than usual in the summer of 2017

Will the Game of Thrones cast bring home the goods for HBO at the Emmys 2016?

Game of Thrones might be leading the path to Emmys glory with an impressive 23 nominations, but the 2017 race will look very different, with no Aryas or Jon Snows in sight.

The reason for the HBO fantasy show’s lack of eligibility lies with its season seven premiere date, confirmed this week as summer next year. Usually, the new season airs in the spring but will now just miss out on the Emmys cycle. This year’s eligibility window stated that episodes in awards contention had to air between 1 June 2015 and 31 May 2016.

Game of Thrones, created by Dan Benioff and DB Weiss, has made the nominations list for Best Drama Series every year since launching in 2011. It won the hotly-contested category in 2015, when it also set a new record for the most wins in a single year, picking up 12 awards.

Casey Bloys, HBO programming president, said in a statement that the change of filming schedule was a result of winter arriving in the storyline. “Now that winter has arrived on Game of Thrones, executive producers David Benioff and D B Weiss felt that the storylines of the next season would be better served by starting production a little later than usual, when the weather is changing,” she wrote. “Instead of the show's traditional spring debut, we’re moving the debut to summer to accommodate the shooting schedule.”

Season seven will be shorter than usual with just seven episodes, followed by an eighth and final season in 2018.

Before the Emmys waves a temporary goodbye to Thrones, however, it will undoubtedly take home an army of gongs at this year’s ceremony on 18 September.