'Game of Thrones' Season 8: Episodes 1 and 2 Will Be Shorter Than Expected
Fans have waited so patiently for "Game of Thrones" Season 8, and while we still anticipate being rewarded, the first two episodes' run times aren't quite what we expected.
Winter Is Coming has been keeping tabs on HBO's schedule, and the site now reports that the lengths of Episodes 1 and 2 have been revealed. HBO lists "Game of Thrones" Season 8, Episode 1 as 54 minutes long and Episode 2 as 58 minutes long. While that's 112 minutes of TV we're very excited to watch, the run times are shorter than what early reports suggested.
Ahead of the Season 7 premiere in 2017, there was already talk of Season 8's episodes being feature-length. Later, in November 2018, "Game of Thrones" director David Nutter said in a Reddit AMA that the final season's episodes would be "dancing around the bigger numbers."
"Season 8 episodes will all I think be longer than 60 minutes," he wrote.
Needless to say, fans who were expecting super-long episodes have thoughts on the latest news.
HBO reveals the episode runtimes for Season 8 of #GameofThrones WTF happened to these episodes being the length of a feature film???!!! I'm already highly disappointed.
E1: 54 minutes
E2: 58 minutes
E3: 60 minutes
E4: 78 minutes
E5: 80 minutes
E6: 80 minutes pic.twitter.com/hcfduFyjyg— KYLE B. (@digital__junkie) March 11, 2019
@GameOfThrones Um... feature length? A 54 min (including credits) feature length film? And the "big battle" in episode 3 is 60 minutes? Sounds like the creators just want to get the hell out of there and be done with it. https://t.co/UJu47lX0U8
— peepeeotti (or Patrice) (@p_piotti) March 9, 2019
So when Game of Thrones said the last 6 episodes would be feature length what they meant is exactly the same length as usual?
— eliza?? (@purpledawndream) March 11, 2019
so @HBO promised full feature film length episodes for @GameOfThrones Season 8 yet after 45+ years they all of a sudden don’t know what that means? here’s a hint: it’s definitely not 54 minutes #GameOfThrones#NeedLongerEpisodes#WeveBeenWaiting
— Rachael ⚔️ (@rachaelseward) March 11, 2019
That's pretty poor from @GameOfThrones@HBO we wait nearly 2 years for the final season of only 6 episodes of which half are normal length and the longest is most definitely not "feature length" at all. Way to pay back the fans. ??
— Luke (@dobbydobz) March 11, 2019
@GameOfThrones@HBO if those runtimes are real I’m SUPER disappointed. We’ve been waiting for over a year and a half and you promised feature length episodes. Not cool.
— Μαdιsοη (@Madi_O3) March 11, 2019
The first two episodes might not quite have hit the 60-minute mark, but the good news is that the final four will reportedly be longer. HBO hasn't confirmed the run times yet, but the French TV network Orange Cinéma Séries said during a presentation in January that Episodes 3, 4, 5, and 6 would be around 80 minutes each.
"Game of Thrones" Season 8 premieres Sunday, April 14 on HBO.
[via: Winter Is Coming; h/t: EW]
