--- title: Game of thrones 2019: season 8 premiere date announced description: HBO has officially confirmed that Game of Thrones season 8 won't return for the final season until 2019. canonical: https://time.com/5088555/game-of-thrones-season-8-premiere-date-2/ author: Megan McCluskey article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-01-04T20:19:47.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T18:45:15.464Z article:section: Entertainment og:title: Here's When Game of Thrones Is Officially Set to Return og:description: Get ready for a long haul, Thrones fans og:url: https://time.com/5088555/game-of-thrones-season-8-premiere-date-2/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5303bce290d7ca5d/6988db768fd2ee16ce3589ce/game-of-thrones-the-dragon-and-the-wold-03.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: game-of-thrones-s7-e7 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Here's When Game of Thrones Is Officially Set to Return twitter:description: Get ready for a long haul, Thrones fans twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5303bce290d7ca5d/6988db768fd2ee16ce3589ce/game-of-thrones-the-dragon-and-the-wold-03.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Here's When _Game of Thrones_ Is Officially Set to Return  by [Megan McCluskey](https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/)  ## Megan McCluskey Staff Writer Jan 4, 2018 8:19 PM UTC  HBO  by [Megan McCluskey](https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/)  ## Megan McCluskey Staff Writer Jan 4, 2018 8:19 PM UTC HBO has officially confirmed that [_Game of Thrones_](http://time.com/game-of-thrones-2017/)will return for its [eighth season](http://time.com/4913247/game-of-thrones-season-8-premiere-date/) in 2019\. After much speculation over just how long fans are going to be waiting for the conclusion of the beloved series, the network released a statement on Thursday announcing that the show’s [final six episodes](http://time.com/4970783/game-of-thrones-season-8-release-date/) won’t air until next year. HBO programming president Casey Bloys had previously hinted that there would be an extensive hiatus following season 7, citing the cinematic scope of season 8 as the cause. “\[Showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss\] have to write the episodes and figure out the production schedule. We’ll have a better sense of that once they get further into the writing,” he told [_Entertainment Weekly_](http://ew.com/tv/2017/06/02/game-of-thrones-prequel-final-season-interview/)when asked about the return date in a June interview. “One of the hallmarks of the show has been how cinematic it is. The show has proven that TV is every bit as impressive and in many cases more so, than film. What they’re doing is monumental.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5088555/game-of-thrones-season-8-premiere-date-2/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5088555/game-of-thrones-season-8-premiere-date-2/"},"headline":"Here's When Game of Thrones Is Officially Set to Return","datePublished":"2018-01-04T20:19:47.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T18:45:15.464Z","description":"Get ready for a long haul, Thrones fans","url":"https://time.com/5088555/game-of-thrones-season-8-premiere-date-2/","keywords":["Television","game of thrones","TV"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5303bce290d7ca5d/6988db768fd2ee16ce3589ce/game-of-thrones-the-dragon-and-the-wold-03.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Megan McCluskey","jobTitle":"Staff Writer","url":"https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/"}],"articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5303bce290d7ca5d/6988db768fd2ee16ce3589ce/game-of-thrones-the-dragon-and-the-wold-03.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"game-of-thrones-s7-e7","caption":"","creditText":"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":"/tag/television/","name":"Television"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5088555/game-of-thrones-season-8-premiere-date-2/","name":"Here's When Game of Thrones Is Officially Set to Return"}}]}] ```