It surprised absolutely no-one when HBO renewed 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Game of Thrones for season 7. What did come as a shock were rumors that the series might return with 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:a much shorter episode count and a 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:delayed release date. Well hold onto your leather britches, folks: today both of those rumors were confirmed by the network.  

As expected, season 7 has its episode count reduced from the usual ten to a mere seven. Showrunners DB Weiss and David Benioff 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:already commented that the plan for the final two seasons is to wrap up the show in roughly 13 episodes. Palpitations aside, it's not entirely a bad thing. Season 6 ploughed through its story much faster than previous seas🦂ons. Now that we're 🃏headed into the final stretch, who wants a 2-3 episode arc that dawdles around somewhere no-one's bothered about? (ahem, Dorne.) 

Normally there's a year-long gap between seasons, but that too is set to change. Due to the whole 'winter is here' thing at the end of season 6, showrunners aren't concerned with shooting in sunny locations. If Westeros is meant to be grey and bleak then it might be difficult to believe if everyone's strutting abo𒅌ut with a tan. So unlike the show's typical spring start, cameras will instead roll at t🍸he tail-end of this summer. That means we won't be seeing any new Thrones until summer 2017. Yes. A whole year from now. 

On the bright side - pe🌸rfect time t🦹o start that seasons 1-6 rewatch, no? 

Images: HBO