HBO has announced it’ll air a documentary on the final season of Game of Thrones, one week after the show’s finale. Premiering in 2011, Game of Thrones brought to life the fantasy novel series A Song of Ice and Fire by George R.R. Martin, and went on to become a pop culture phenomenon and a huge critical success. Over the course of its first seven seasons, Thrones has racked up 47 Emmy awards, including 3 wins for Outstanding Drama Series.
Beginning in April, Game of Thrones will wrap up its epic saga with six final episodes, including one episode that includes the reputed longest battle scene ever shot for television or movies. In addition to that epic battle, the show will also resolve the fates of its many popular characters, including Jon Snow (Kit Harington), Daenerys Targaryen (Emilia Clarke), Sansa (Sophie Turner) and Arya Stark (Maisie Williams), Cersei Lannister (Lena Headey), Tyrion Lannister (Peter Dinklage), and dozens more. Perhaps most importantly, the show will also potentially deliver the showdown fans have been waiting for between the two Cleganes, Gregor “The Mountain” and Sandor “The Hound.”
One week after Game of Thrones finally wraps up, with what will no doubt be one of the biggest and most discussed finales in TV history, HBO says it will air a two-hour documentary looking back on the making of the series’ final season (via THR). Entitled Game of Thrones: The Last Watch, the doc will delve “deep into the mud and blood to reveal the tears and triumphs involved in the challenge of bringing the fantasy world of Westeros to life in the very real studios, fields and car-parks of Northern Ireland.”
The documentary’s director Jeanie Finlay reportedly had “unprecedented access” to the goings-on behind the scenes during the shooting of the final season, so the doc promises to deliver a lot of juicy material for Game of Thrones fans everywhere. This is on top of the six episodes set to air, which reportedly add up to 432 minutes of action, with the final four episodes all set to run for over 70 minutes each. By the time those 432 minutes have elapsed, fans should finally have answers to all the burning questions that have been consuming them since the show began.
Of course, Game of Thrones fans have even more to look forward to beyond the final season and the documentary. After GoT ends, HBO plans on moving forward with a prequel series reportedly titled The Long Night, set thousands of years before the events of the main series. The pilot for The Long Night should arrive some time in 2020, with Oscar nominee Naomi Watts heading up the cast. HBO has talked about developing more prequel series, but for now it seems The Long Night is the only one that’s actually going ahead.
Obviously, Game of Thrones has been a huge money-maker for HBO in the nearly ten years since it first hit the air. It’s no surprise to see the network trying to max out Thrones-related content while hype for the show is at an all-time high. As of now, the final season of Thrones is shaping up to be one of the biggest events in TV history, and social media will no doubt be on fire as the events of season 8 play out.
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Source: THR
