--- description: Winter is coming—slowly but surely title: 'Game of Thrones' Season 6 May Return Later Than Expected image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9dd06283d78278de/69886ed72dce01fd769e6414/f36185aa337ded26b89a48291055c9bcac5e6ca9a390e6885adc4ac9ef5923332fe4ad14640ca3d030464e31f5021d27.jpeg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Entertainment](/section/entertainment/) ## Entertainment Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # _Game of Thrones_ Season 6 May Return Later Than You Wanted by [James Hibberd / Entertainment Weekly](/author/entertainment-weekly/) ## James Hibberd / Entertainment Weekly Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Oct 29, 2015 8:21 PM CUT  Conleth Hill and Peter Dinklage in Season 5 of Game of Thrones. Conleth Hill and Peter Dinklage in Season 5 of Game of Thrones.Helen Sloan—HBO by [James Hibberd / Entertainment Weekly](/author/entertainment-weekly/) ## James Hibberd / Entertainment Weekly Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Oct 29, 2015 8:21 PM CUT _Game of Thrones_ will probably return at least a little later than you expect. On Thursday, HBO announced the February premiere dates for Martin Scorsese’s record label period drama _Vinyl_, along with the return of comedies _Girls_ and _Togetherness_. Each show will air Sunday, Feb. 14. What do those series have to do with _Thrones_? Quite possibly everthing. It’s the TV scheduling domino effect! HBO usually airs its original programming for up to two hours on one night a week (Sunday) and _Thrones_ tends to start after the network’s late-winter shows conclude — usually very late March or early April (last year _Thrones_ returned April 6). No premiere date for _Thrones_ has yet been announced. But given that the winter programs have 10 episodes each, _Thrones_ couldn’t return in early April, or even mid-April, even if all three shows ran for 10 weeks straight. So we’re looking at late April at the very earliest. This would also have the effect of pushing the _Thrones_ finale deeper into summer than usual. So all of us desperately wondering what’s going on at Castle Black are probably going to have to wait a little longer than usual. Knowing _Thrones_, which is coming off sweeping the Emmys this year, the wait will be worth it. _This_ [_article_](http://www.ew.com/article/2015/10/29/game-thrones-season-6-premiere-date "undefined") _originally appeared on_ [_EW.com_](http://www.ew.com "undefined") ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4093426/game-of-thrones-season-6-delay/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4093426/game-of-thrones-season-6-delay/"},"headline":"Game of Thrones Season 6 May Return Later Than You Wanted","datePublished":"2015-10-29T20:21:14.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T12:12:42.514Z","description":"Winter is coming—slowly but surely","url":"https://time.com/4093426/game-of-thrones-season-6-delay/","keywords":["Television","HBO","game of thrones"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9dd06283d78278de/69886ed72dce01fd769e6414/f36185aa337ded26b89a48291055c9bcac5e6ca9a390e6885adc4ac9ef5923332fe4ad14640ca3d030464e31f5021d27.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"James Hibberd / Entertainment Weekly"}],"articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9dd06283d78278de/69886ed72dce01fd769e6414/f36185aa337ded26b89a48291055c9bcac5e6ca9a390e6885adc4ac9ef5923332fe4ad14640ca3d030464e31f5021d27.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"f36185aa337ded26b89a48291055c9bcac5e6ca9a390e6885adc4ac9ef5923332fe4ad14640ca3d030464e31f5021d27","caption":"Conleth Hill and Peter Dinklage in Season 5 of Game of Thrones.","creditText":"Helen Sloan—HBO","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4093426/game-of-thrones-season-6-delay/","name":"Game of Thrones Season 6 May Return Later Than You Wanted"}}]}] ```