HBO president speaks of Game Of Thrones season 8 renewal, episode count and potential spinoff

Game Of Thrones season 7 is yet to premiere, but there is already news about the show's final season's episode count. HBO's programming president Casey Bloys revealed that showrunners David Benioff and DB Weiss are still undecided on how many episodes the final season will consist of.

Bloys told Entertainment Weekly, "They're still figuring out the shape of the season, what they want to do. I'll take as many as they want to do. If they give me eight, I'll want 10. But it's really up to them. They'll let me know."

Although GOT season 8 renewal has not been officially revealed, the HBO president insisted that once the exact episode count is ironed out, an official season 8 pickup will follow. Bloys, however, assured fans that the renewal of season 8 was a sure deal. "If you're afraid we're not going to do an eighth season, I assure you we're going to."

HBO is also talking to writers about a possible GOT prequel series as Casey admitted that "we will take some shots at it". He said, "It's such a big property we would be foolish not to explore it, but it's a pretty high bar. We'll take some shots at it. I'm not going to do it just to do it. It has to feel very special. I would rather have no sequel and leave it as-is then have something we rushed out."

Bloys also noted that a prequel is more likely than a spin-off that uses existing characters. "A prequel feels like it has less pressure on it [than a spin-off], [Author George RR Martin's history of Westeros] gives you areas in which to say to a writer, 'If you were going to do this, then go flesh it out,' and we'll see what comes back. But I don't feel any pressure that we have to have something."

Game Of Thrones season 7 will premiere in summer 2017 on HBO.