Sophie Turner says final season of Game of Thrones will arrive in 2019

Sophie Turner is going through a fiery transformation on the cover of EW as Jean Grey, but she has also just burned our hopes and dreams down to a pile of ash by confirming every GAME OF THRONES fan’s worst nightmare: the final season of the show will not arrive until 2019.

During an interview with Variety about the upcoming season, Turner talked about how they started filming the final season in October, and that they still have six-seven months left of filming to go. That would put filming all the way into the beginning of summer, which means that even the late debut like that of season seven isn’t in the cards. She then concluded the interview by saying the season will indeed arrive in 2019. Ah, it burns!

This latest season of GAME OF THRONES was the shortest yet with seven episodes, and the final season will be shorter yet with six episodes. Each episode will be much longer than normal in length, and given all the visual effects and battle scenes, will require much more time to film. Taking all this into account, people were expecting a possible 2019 release but were holding out hope for a possible late 2018 premiere.  Even HBO wasn't sure of the specific release but has leaned toward a 2019 date as being the most realistic.  

Who knows, maybe Turner is also just trying to be realistic. If this is indeed the planned timeframe, then, like any GOT fan out there, I am seriously bummed about having to wait so much longer for this new season. Don’t get me wrong, I totally get it. This season is going to be so much more epic than previous ones, what with all the battles and dragon carnage and wrapping of major plot lines up. If this is what needs to be done to make it the best it can be, it’s what needs to happen. A subpar season won’t cut it. This could mean a spring 2019 debut, which is when past seasons (sans seven) usually debuted.  Oh, screw it, I’m still holding out for winter 2018.