One of the worst parts about the summer months coming to an end is the sudden lack of new Game of Thrones episodes. After spending the past few months watching dragons, murder, and sex, we're suddenly left to wait almost a year until we can once again meet up with the denizens of Westeros. This unfortunate reality will only be worse with Game's final two seasons, as they'll contain less episodes than their predecessors. And while many fans are disappointed that we'll be getting shorter seasons to finish the epic drama, it appears that the team behind the show are all on board. This includes actress Maisie Williams.
Maisie Williams, who plays the deadly and somewhat psychotic Arya Stark in Game of Thrones, recently spoke to Variety regarding the final two seasons. In her opinion, the shorter seasons make sense because Game will not be forced to compromise in regards to quality. She said the following:
It sucks for the audience because they love the episodes, but what we'll never do on this show is drag it out, and I'm so thrilled about that. Too many shows start out about making a great show, and by Season 6 it's about making money and all they want to do is write more episodes and make more money. This show makes a lot of money, and it would be easy for HBO to be like 'we're gonna do four more seasons and we're gonna extend them to 12 episodes.' I really respect David [Benioff] and Dan [Weiss] for holding their ground and for HBO to be like 'no... we're gonna tell this story and we're gonna end it and that'll be final.'
Honestly, this is a bit refreshing. Television and movie production are so often motivated by making money and greed, rather than passion and creative expression. Sure, the fist few seasons of a TV show may be awesome, but so often a show runs long past its expiration date and suffers during their later seasons. We saw this happen with another HBO show True Blood, which struggled to captivate audiences as the seasons piled up.
Later on in her talk with Variety, Maisie Williams also opened up regarding how excited she is for Game of Thrones' thrilling conclusion. She seems to think the series is ending at the perfect time, saying:
Good things must come to an end or they're not good anymore. It doesn't last forever and we've done what we came to do, it's time to wrap this up, and it will have the ending it was always supposed to have, and that's very special. David and Dan started writing this show knowing the end, not knowing that it might actually come around and we might be allowed to make that many [seasons] --- at the beginning we were just willing to make one [season]. They started this with an end in sight, and so it's exciting to be closing it... I'm just excited to see everyone again -- we start a lot later this year because winter has arrived, so that can't happen in sunny Belfast.
Once again, the lady has a point. Fans of Game of Thrones (and there are tons of them) have a perfectly thought out and deliberate ending to look forward with its final two seasons. The show's creators have apparently planned this ending from the start, and it will presumably be informed by the journeys we've taken throughout the years.
What do you think of Game of Thrones' shorter season and impending finale? Sound off in the comments below.
