Game of Thrones director reveals the number of episodes the show has left

As previously reported, we’re already aware that Game of Thrones has a finite number of episodes left, and that the next two seasons (once Season 6 wraps up) would be shorter than what we’re used to. One of the showrunners, David Benioff, told Variety that he thinks that Game of Thrones is down to its ‘final 13 episodes after this season,’ adding that ‘we’re heading into the final lap.’

But now we’ve gotten something as close to a confirmation of a real, different number of episodes, coming from one of the show’s directors, Jack Bender – who directed one of the best episodes the show has seen, ‘The Door’. He was recently asked by Vanity Fair whether he would direct one of the episodes in the following season, and this is what he had to say:

‘I don’t know the answer to that. They’re only doing seven [episodes], and they’ve got their regulars who have done it forever.’

The ‘episodes’ in square brackets are Vanity Fair’s, not ours – so possibly, just possibly, Bender actually just meant ‘seven’ as in Season Seven – but we know for a fact that we’ve got two more years of the show, so we should be able to put that off the cards. So in the cold light of day, it’s clear Bender meant that Game of Thrones only has seven episodes left after Season 6, dramatically less than Benioff’s previously stated 13. Does this mean that one season will be four episodes long, and another only three episodes long?

If this is true, then surely each episode in these seasons will be extended, some perhaps even 90-minute long televisual movies in themselves? If that’s the case, then we can rest easy that the final couple of years of Game of Thrones is sure to be hefty enough to tackle the remaining story threads.

Game of Thrones Season Six is currently airing on HBO and Sky.