Game of Thrones 2017 preview: What’s on the way this year
How many episodes are there and who’s directing them?
Unfortunately, Season 7 will have fewer episodes than usual. Each of the past six seasons had 10 episodes apiece. Season 7 will have only seven, although it’s possible they’ll be longer than normal.
Last June, Entertainment Weekly revealed the four directors assigned to tackle the highly anticipated seventh season of Game of Thrones. Three of them are veterans, while one is a surprising newcomer.
First and foremost, Alan Taylor will direct Episode 6. Out of the four, he’s the one who has been with the show the longest. He’s responsible for introducing us to the bewitching House of the Undying in Season 2’s “Valar Morghulis” and directed Ned Stark’s death scene in Season 1’s “Baelor.” He’s back for the first time since 2012, after taking a hiatus to direct feature Hollywood films like Thor: The Dark World and Terminator Genisys, the latter of which starred Emilia Clarke.
Jeremy Podeswa is directing Season 7’s first and last episode. Podeswa has directed episodes in both Seasons 5 and 6. He scored an Emmy nomination for his work on Season 5’s “Unbowed, Unbent, Unbroken,” which featured the heart-wrenching rape of Sansa Stark. The Canadian director is also responsible for bringing Jon Snow back from the dead in Season 6’s “Home.”
Mark Mylod has also been with the show since Season 5. In Season 7, he’ll take on Episodes 2 and 3. He’s the guy who introduced us to the High Sparrow back in “High Sparrow” and brought The Hound back to life in Season 6’s “The Broken Man.” Although a relative newcomer to Game of Thrones, Mylod’s been with HBO before, having directed 23 episodes of Entourage.
The newbie to the bunch is Matt Shakman, who’s directed over 40 episodes of FXX’s It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia. He’ll be directing Episodes 4 and 5.
What’s a comedy guy doing on Game of Thrones? As it turns out, showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss are huge fans of Always Sunny. They even wrote the Season 9 episode “Flowers for Charlie.” Shakman has a lot of other TV work under his belt, as well, including episodes of Mad Men, Fargo, House and The Good Wife. We’re excited to see what Shakman can do.
It hasn’t been made entirely clear why we’re only getting seven Season 7 episodes. But there’s only two more seasons left in the series, so our understanding is the showrunners want to pack in as much action as they can without dragging it out too much. As actor Iain Glen (Jorah) told the Radio Times, “They are taking the length of time it takes to shoot ten episodes to shoot just seven this year and six next year. There are fifteen more hours left in Thrones…but that may change.”
Next: Is there any officially released footage from Season 7?