Game of Thrones star Iain Glen (Jorah Mormont) calls season 8 episodes “feature length”
By Dan Selcke
Ever since Game of Thrones fans heard that the final season of the show would consist of only six episodes, they’ve been in a bit of a panic. Would that be enough time to wrap up the myriad storylines at play? Will we be able to say proper goodbyes to characters we’ve come to love? Will Ghost show up?
As to that last question: yes he will. But anxiety over the abbreviated episode count remains. Some fans wonder if the episodes themselves will be longer than usual to make up for their comparatively meager number. There’s some sense to the idea; after all, the production spent more time filming season 8 than any season before it, so it stands to reason that we’d get more…show than from any season before it, regardless of the number of episodes.
To be fair, the increased filming time could be explained by a larger number of show-stopping set pieces, of which we’re sure there will be several. There’s been no official word either way, but there have been rumblings, including from star Iain Glen (Jorah Mormont). “The final scripts are really special,” he recently told Express. “We all sat down for the read-through of six feature-length episodes. They took longer to film, cost more, and are more surprising. Read like the six best scripts [with] monumental set pieces.”
Feature-length, you say? How interesting.
Glen isn’t the first insider to throw around that kind of language. Sound designer Paula Fairfield, who’s always good for an interesting quote, said much the same thing at the first Con of Thrones. “The finale, I’ve heard, it will be six shows, but I’ve heard they’ll be feature-length.”
And yes, the first Con of Thrones took place before season 7 aired. Could Fairfield have realistically had reliable information about season 8 back then? Should I stop asking questions that crap on the fun?
Moving on, Glen talked a little more generally about the ending of the show, and what it’s meant to him. “It was very emotional,” he said of his final day on set.
"Game of Thrones will stick with us all forever and we were very lucky to have been a part of the show…The reality won’t sink in until it comes to next year when we should be filming, but we’re not."
But before that happens, will fans get treated to six feature-length blowouts? That’s the question.
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