In July, HBO chief Casey Bloys promised Game of Thrones fans that the eighth and final season of the hugely popular fantasy series would debut sometime in the “first half” of 2019. In a more recent interview with Huffington Post, however, visual effects supervisor Joe Bauer inadvertently suggested that the show’s concluding string of episodes probably won’t air until much later.
The topic came about during a discussion of the seventh season’s record-breaking 22 Emmy nominations for the upcoming 2018 telecast. “In two years we’ll be eligible for the Season 8 work, which we’re just beginning now,” Bauer explained. In other words, it sounds like what the Game of Thrones visual effects team is doing for the final season won’t be eligible for awards consideration until the 2020 Emmy nomination and awards ballots are out for consideration:
“We’re going to be toiling away on Season 8 until May of 2019, so it’s eight or nine months away,” he added. “But the prequel is starting to shoot in February, at least the pilot. So we’ll still have quite a lot to do on Season 8 when they’re beginning.”
Bauer said he’s blocked off his schedule until next May for Game of Thrones effects work. “So much of it comes down to timing and all that stuff. The situation changes every week. I know I’m not doing anything else but Thrones until May of next year.”
Of course, that Bauer and his team will be toiling away on the final season until May 2019 doesn’t mean that episodes won’t begin debuting before then. What’s more, as Huffington Post notes, May 31 is the official cut-off date for Television Academy consideration, so any episodes that presumably air before then would be eligible for submission for the 2019 Emmys. Academy rules also allow for “hanging episodes,” for series whose runs are divided by the awards consideration cut-off date, to qualify for pre-cut-off awards submission.
But if Bauer believes that most of his work, and therefore most of the episodes, will be airing late enough to place Game of Thrones‘ final season in the 2020 Emmys contest, then it looks like fans will have to wait a little longer than the previously hinted release timeline.
(Via Huffington Post)