Vital Information: Game of Thrones Season 3 Will Have Extra-Long Episodes!

Winter Is Coming
This article is over 12 years old and may contain outdated information

Recommended Videos

You probably know by now that George R.R. Martin created extra long seasons for his A Song of Ice and Fire book series. That’s why winter is always coming but still hasn’t actually hit the HBO show. But we’ve got some excellent news to share today – Game of Thrones Season 3 is getting extended episodes. 

You may remember, the Season 2 finale episode got a bonus ten minutes. Of course it flew by considering how great the episode was, but we were thankful to have it. Writers/producers David Benioff and Dan Weiss spoke with Entertainment Weekly about the upcoming season and dropped a pretty cool bomb.

The duo are currently in production on Season 3 which is going to cover the first half (give or take) of A Storm of Swords. Weiss said, “There’s almost another full episode’s worth of extra minutes spread across the season. One of the great liberties with HBO is we’re not forced to come in at a specific time. We can’t be under 50 minutes or over 60, but that gives us a lot of flexibility.”

Benioff referred to the episodes as “super-sized” and said it was appropriate for the book. “Last year we had a lot of 52-minute episodes. This year is a lot of 56, 57,” he said.

So, not a lot more when you think about it but every minute counts in my book. And if it means an extra minute of screen time for my favorite characters then I’m behind it 100%.

The plan is still for 10 episodes (I wish they would do more!) for the entire season but there’s already talk about getting special permission from HBO to have the Season 3 finale be longer than an hour. Just let us know if there’s anything we can do to help guys.

(via Blastr)

Are you following The Mary Sue on Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, Pinterest, & Google +?


The Mary Sue is supported by our audience. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn a small affiliate commission. Learn more about our Affiliate Policy
Author
Image of Jill Pantozzi
Jill Pantozzi
Jill Pantozzi is a pop-culture journalist and host who writes about all things nerdy and beyond! She’s Editor in Chief of the geek girl culture site The Mary Sue (Abrams Media Network), and hosts her own blog “Has Boobs, Reads Comics” (TheNerdyBird.com). She co-hosts the Crazy Sexy Geeks podcast along with superhero historian Alan Kistler, contributed to a book of essays titled “Chicks Read Comics,” (Mad Norwegian Press) and had her first comic book story in the IDW anthology, “Womanthology.” In 2012, she was featured on National Geographic’s "Comic Store Heroes," a documentary on the lives of comic book fans and the following year she was one of many Batman fans profiled in the documentary, "Legends of the Knight."