HBO president drops hints as to when the final season of 'Game of Thrones' will be released

We have gotten so used to the cycle of one Game of Thrones season coming out a year that the withdrawal symptoms have come into full effect. You might have found yourself endlessly searching Reddit for fan theories, looking at any set photos shared on Twitter, or hugging your Game of Thrones boxset as you go to sleep.

We may have to wait until 2019 to see it released, but on the horizon, there will be even more stories from Westeros to enjoy once the final season has aired. Five different spinoff scripts were put into development, but apparently they will only be moving ahead with one of them, a prequel that is set to shoot at the start of 2019.

The project takes place thousands of years before the events of the show we know and love, and apparently "chronicles the world’s descent from the golden Age of Heroes into its darkest hour". As well as dealing with the origins of the white walkers, it will delve into the past of the Stark family and other mysteries. Speaking at the Television Critics Association press tour this week, HBO President Casey Boys said:

“The reason we did multiple scripts, in the development process, [we knew] out of five we’d be lucky to get one we’re excited about.

“There are others that are good, there are others that are not going forward, but I don’t want to get into that individually, other than to say that we’re excited about the pilot we’re shooting and we’re just looking for a director now, we’re just casting.

"I don’t imagine there will be any more activity on the prequels until we see how this goes. I’m not holding one back and we’re going to make an announcement any time soon.”

In addition to this, at the same talk, Bloys discussed when we will be seeing the final season of Game of Thrones air. In the past, all we have known is that it will be coming at some point in 2019, but now Bloys has confirmed that it will land in the "first half" of 2019.

Major actors have wrapped filming, which many believe means the episodes could be ready earlier - but that's not taking into account the sheer amount of work there is to do in post-production. Given that the final six episodes will be capping off a lengthy story, there's probably a fair amount of CGI to be added in - given the fact there aren't any dragons around in the world, and it would be pretty expensive to put thousands of extras in full winter zombie make-up.

Maisie Williams, who plays Arya Stark, was quoted as saying the season will be released in April 2019, but has since claimed that the comments made to Metro were not real. Previous seasons have premiered in late March or early April, so this could be the case again. However, season seven premiered in mid-July last year, so it is possible that we're waiting a little later.