Earlier this week, we went on HBO’s programming schedule and hunted down the runtimes for the final six episodes of Game of Thrones, which will air week after week starting on April 14. Here were the results:
- Episode 801: 54 minutes
- Episode 802: 58 minutes
- Episode 803: 60 minutes
- Episode 804: 78 minutes
- Episode 805: 80 minutes
- Episode 806: 80 minutes
That’s a pretty hefty final season, although some fans wanted more. In particular, 60 minutes seemed a little on the short side for Episode 803, which by all accounts will feature a spectacular battle scene at Winterfell that the production spent months laboring over. The whole season is going to be great, but that episode…watch out for that episode.
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Anyway, cruising by the schedule again, we noticed that HBO had changed something. While most of the runtimes remain the same, HBO added 22 minutes to Episode 803, bringing it from 60 minutes up to 82. That means it’s not only the longest episode of the season but of the entire series, beating out the last title holder, season 7’s “The Dragon and the Wolf,” by a minute. That oughta please people, no?
Mind you, I very much doubt that HBO suddenly found 22 spare minutes of footage lying around and decided to glom it on to Episode 803; the network probably just hadn’t finalized the runtimes when we reported on them last. Indeed, Entertainment Weekly has just come along and confirmed that these are the final runtimes for the season:
- Episode 801: 54 minutes
- Episode 802: 58 minutes
- Episode 803: 82 minutes
- Episode 804: 78 minutes
- Episode 805: 80 minutes
- Episode 806: 80 minutes
And there you have it! Two normal-sized episodes follow by four whoppers, one of which is the longest-ever episode of the show. Batten down the hatches; things are gonna get wild.
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