The final season of Game of Thrones is just around the corner.  HBO has yet to declare the episode count for season 8. Producers confirmed that they will not be tangled with any Game of Thrones spin-off or prequel series. As per Entertainment Weekly, showrunners David Benioff and Dan Weiss revealed that Season 8 will only have six episodes.

"It's only going to be six episodes for the final season. From the beginning, we've wanted to tell a 70-hour movie. It turned out to be a 73-hour movie, but it keeps on fairly the same of having the beginning, middle and now we're coming to the end. It would have been really tough if we lost any core cast along the way, I'm very happy we've kept everyone and we get to finish it the way we want to," Benioff said, as per Entertainment Weekly.

The shortened season, unexpectedly, isn't really shocking. Last summer, Benioff spoke to Variety about the final two seasons. He said that there are only 13 episodes left in the entire series. As of now, the upcoming season 7 will only deliver a seven-hour-long episode. As per Benioff and Weiss, the season will feature a huge guest presence.

"For years we were trying to get Ed Sheeran on the show to surprise Maisie [Williams] and this year we finally did it," Benioff said.

Better Late Than Never

Season 7, which will start a bit later than usual for GoT on July 16, has also been reduced to only seven episodes. However, despite shorter episodes, the "size and scale" of the show will be increased, resulting in bigger and more heroic episodes. Sir Davos Seaworth, played by Liam Cunningham, revealed to IGN that the new season will also see a lot of the expansive collaboration of cast coming together.

While waiting for Game of Thrones to return in a few months, check out the teaser video down below.