Though there's been no official word yet, Game of Thrones Season 8 is slated to release either in late 2018 or early 2019. An earlier report, confirmed by showrunners David Benioff and D. B. Weiss, says that Season 8 will feature just six episodes.
Also read: Why Game of Thrones star Kit Harington wants Season 8 production to SHUT DOWN for a day?
While the show's final season will have the fewest episodes in its history, then series star Liam Cunningham aka Ser Davos Seaworth has recently fuelled the speculations saying that the series won't be back until 2019.
The filming of the show will continue until the next summer. The production of the final season has already begun over the weekend.
"We're filming right up until the summer. When you think about it, up until last season we'd have six months to do ten episodes, so we're [doing] way more than that for six episodes. So that obviously will translate into longer episodes," Ser Davos actor previously told TV Guide.
Speaking at New York Comic Con on last Saturday, Cunningham told IGN, "Tomorrow I fly back to Ireland and the first table reading is on Sunday. The second table reading is on Monday. Then we rehearse and then start shooting the week after."
Talking about the table reading, the actor hinted that nobody has received a script yet for the final season as the makers have tightened up the security due to the last season episodes and scripts leaks.
"Let me tell you what I know. Yesterday something quite monumental happened. I got the scripts for the last season. Kind of," Cunningham further said. "I got them all - I can't open them because of all the security and I can't walk them out. I went 'I'm not touching it I don't care', because it's like pulling the pin out of a grenade."
This comes after HBO Head of Programming Casey Bloys said that even the cast wouldn't be told how the show will end.
He explained: "I know in Game of Thrones, the ending, they're going to shoot multiple versions so that nobody really knows what happens."
He added: "You have to do that on a long show. Because when you're shooting something, people know. So they're going to shoot multiple versions so that there's no real definitive answer until the end."
While the fans are excited about the longest episodes in the forthcoming season, they must be a little disappointed about the show's unlikely return in 2018.
