Game of Thrones is a seasoned veteran. With four seasons under its belt and the fifth about to begin the show knows exactly what it's doing. But even though no one wants to do it yet, it's time to start making plans for retirement.
Showrunners David Benioff and Dan Weiss have made it clear they want to end the show after seven seasons, but HBO wants the series to last longer. "This is the hard part of what we do," HBO programming president Michael Lombardo told EW. "We started this journey with David and Dan. It’s their vision. Would I love the show to go 10 years as both a fan and a network executive? Absolutely."
Both parties are going to need to reach an agreement, and Lombardo says he'll trust the showrunners best judgment. "If they weren’t comfortable going beyond seven seasons, I trust them implicitly and trust that’s the right decision—as horrifying as that is to me," he said. "What I’m not going to do is have a show continue past where the creators believe where they feel they’ve finished with the story."
This isn't the only decision to be made, though. George R.R. Martin is keen on ending the series with a feature film, but HBO thinks such a move, as profitable as it would be, would abandon its subscribers. There are also talks about possible spinoffs, and extending the final season to split up in halves for consecutive years.
If this is too much for you to think about just focus on season five premiering April 12.
