Game of Thrones Season 7 will be seven episodes long, premiere in summer of 2017

HBO has officially announced in a press release that there will be only seven episodes in Game of Thrones Season 7. The press release also confirmed that Season 7 will start later than the usual spring premiere date, since the producers want to wait until the weather turns to film some of the scenes. Said Casey Bloys, president of HBO programming:

"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. Instead of the show’s traditional spring debut, we’re moving the debut to summer to accommodate the shooting schedule."

The release doesn’t specify exactly when Season 7 is debuting, but says that it’s “slated for summer 2017 on HBO.”

The presser also confirmed the directors for Season 7: Mark Mylod, Jeremy Podeswa, Matt Shakman, and Alan Taylor. There’s no word yet on who’s directing what episodes. Specific filming locations in Spain include Sevilla, Caceres, Almodovar del Rio, Santiponce, Zumaia, and Bermeo. Production of Season 7 will be based in Northern Ireland, with Spain and Iceland being the other two confirmed filming locations.

Finally, HBO lists the Season 7 credits:

"Executive producers of Game of Thrones are David Benioff, D.B. Weiss, Carolyn Strauss, Frank Doelger and Bernadette Caulfield; co-executive producers, Guymon Casady, Vince Gerardis, George R.R. Martin and Bryan Cogman; producers, Chris Newman, Greg Spence and Lisa McAtackney."

Since we have been told that there are roughly 13 episodes remaining in the series remaining, it appears as if Season 8 will have only six episodes. However, for now, that remains speculation. With a summer premiere, it looks like the long wait until new Game of Thrones content just got a lot longer.