HBO announced filming on the critically acclaimed dramatic series Game of Thrones‘ season seven will begin later this summer. The show’s coming off its best season to date and while fans were still holding out hope for an April 2017 premiere of season seven, HBO just dashed those hopes by confirming it won’t arrive until next summer. The network also confirmed that season seven will only consist of seven one-hour episodes. That’s right…just seven episodes.
Season seven is set to shoot in Northern Ireland, Spain (Sevilla, Caceres, Almodovar del Rio, Santiponce, Zumaia and Bermeo), and Iceland. Mark Mylod, Jeremy Podeswa, Matt Shakman, and Alan Taylor have signed on to direct episodes. Mylod directed the No One (2016), The Broken Man (2016), Sons of the Harpy (2015), and High Sparrow (2015) episodes. Podeswa directed Home (2016), The Red Woman (2016), Unbowed, Unbent, Unbroken (2015), and Kill the Boy (2015). Alan Taylor has directed six Game of Thrones episodes: Valar Morghulis (2012), The Prince of Winterfell (2012), The Night Lands (2012), The North Remembers (2012), Fire and Blood (2011), and Baelor (2011). Matt Shakman joins the series as director for the first time with the seventh season.
“Now that winter has arrived on Game of Thrones, executive producers David Benioff and D.B. Weiss felt that the storylines of the next season would be better served by starting production a little later than usual, when the weather is changing,” said Casey Bloys, president, HBO programming. “Instead of the show’s traditional spring debut, we’re moving the debut to summer to accommodate the shooting schedule.”
