Game of Thrones to return next summer with seven-episode season

Winter may finally have come on our screens, but we’ll be enjoying the seventh season of Game of Thrones in the summer heat of 2017 (we hope).

HBO has officially confirmed that season seven of the world’s most-talked-about drama will return in summer 2017 for a seven-episode season.

The series usually broadcasts in April, however bosses said last month that filming had been delayed until winter to allow for authentic weather in the series. Game of Thrones‘ oft-discussed winter finally came at the end of season six, meaning the show’s usual summer filming schedule no longer fitted the story.

The season will be Thrones‘ shortest yet, three episodes less than the usual ten hour-long episodes.

As reported yesterday, Game of Thrones will film in Iceland for the first time since seasons three and four – where the country doubled for the show’s coldest region beyond-the-wall. HBO also announced that filming would take place in the usual locations in Northern Ireland and Spain.

HBO programming president Casey Bloys said: “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.”

There is no official reason for season seven’s reduction in episodes, although Benioff and Weiss have previously said they wanted to cap the series at 73 hours, with seven episodes next year and six in a final eighth season. Fans have speculated this is to devote more of the show’s budget to the explosive climax.

Season six was nominated for a whopping 23 Emmys last week, with first ever nominations for Kit Harington (Jon Snow) and Maisie Williams (Arya Stark).