While Game of Thrones Season 8 is set to contain the fewest episodes to date (six in total), that doesn’t necessarily mean it’ll be any faster to film. In fact, rumor had it that virtually every episode would be around feature-length. Understandably, it sounds like this will also lead to a longer stretch of filming.

RELATED: Game of Thrones Actor Calls Every Episode Of Season 8 ‘Monumental’

Speaking with TV Guide, actor Liam Cunningham, who plays Davos in the show, revealed for how long the final season will be filming:

“[The episodes are] definitely going to be bigger and what I hear is longer. We’re filming right up until the summer. When you think about it, up until last season we’d have six months to do ten episodes, so we’re [doing] way more than that for six episodes. So that obviously will translate into longer episodes.”

This also explains full and well why the budget for each of these episodes is rumored to be $15 million apiece. When the episodes are virtually 50 percent longer, it’s not unreasonable to expect a 50 percent or so bigger budget.

The big question we have is what this means for the final season’s release date. For Season 7, production ended in February of 2017, and began airing five-plus months later on July 26, 2017. Using the same rules, if production ends around June, we may be looking at an early winter/late fall release. Heck, if that’s the case, HBO may find it worth it to hold onto it until the 2019 spring season, which is another rumored timeframe.

All in all, we can’t wait to see what comes of Game of Thrones Season 8, no matter when it finally hits HBO. It’ll likely be well worth the wait.

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SOURCE: TV Guide