It’s official: Game of Thrones season 8 will only be six episodes long

Although its been rumored for a while now, HBO has confirmed to Entertainment Weekly that Game of Thrones season 8, the final season of the show, will consist of only six episodes, as opposed to the usual 10. The upcoming season 7 will only have seven episodes long. And cue the sadness.

However, the cast and crew members have said that, even though season 7 is shorter than usual, many of the important characters will get more screentime. “When I first read this season I thought: ‘Damn, I gotta learn some lines!'” said Emlia Clarke (Daenerys Targaryen). “We’re actually filming longer now. I don’t know how that’s happening.” Peter Dinklage (Tyrion Lannister) was also surprised by the heavier workload: “I’ve worked more days this season than I have in quite some time.”

So how is it there are fewer episodes but more screentime for our favorite characters? Showrunner Dan Weiss explained: “You kill a couple dozen characters, the people who are left by default need to carry more dramatic weight.”

Think about characters like Margaery Tyrell and Ramsay Bolton, who previously anchored their own scenes. With them and others no longer around, the characters who remain get “a bigger slice of the pie,” as Kit Harington puts it.

Perhaps more importantly, with Arya back home and Daenerys and her crew heading for Westeros, all of the remaining characters are now on one continent for the first time in the series. Said Weiss:

"As the worlds start to converge the characters who haven’t met each other before start to meet each other and there are more main characters together in each other’s storylines than ever before. Every since Tyrion crossed the Narrow Sea and met Dany that’s been the general direction. And having them on set together is a real privilege for us."

Carice van Houten (Melisandre) is thinking along those lines, although she layered in a little warning about more losses to come:

"These storylines are going to cross and it’s going to be so exciting to watch I think. War has really started. We all know there’s no escape. How are we going to run away from what’s coming? Everyone is going to get trapped. The heat is on."

Remember: even though we’re not getting as many episodes this year, the Game of Thrones crew took just as long to film season 7 as it did previous seasons. We’ll see how it all comes together on July 16.