Game of Thrones preps short finale, Ed Sheeran to guest

The final season of Game of Thrones will have just six episodes, the fewest of any run of the fantasy epic.

The showrunners of the HBO series confirmed the news yesterday in a session at the South by Southwest Festival in Austen, Texas. They also announced that pop star Ed Sheeran will make a guest appearance in the series.

The July 16 launch date for season seven of Game of Thrones was announced last week and it will run to seven instalments, instead of the ten that each of the previous seasons contained.

The eighth and final run will have just six, David Benioff and Dan Weiss said.

“It’s only going to be six episodes for the final season,” said Benioff. “From the beginning we’ve wanted to tell a 70-hour movie. It will turn out to be a 73-hour movie.”

Despite the high body count in the series, the showrunners added they were happy the series would end with a core contingent of talent in place.

“It would have been really tough if we lost any core cast members along the way,” Benioff said. “I’m very happy we’ve kept everyone and we get to finish it the way we want to.”

guess the cats out the bag… https://t.co/9GCDUp9HPN

— Ed Sheeran (@edsheeran) March 12, 2017

The creative also told the SXSW audience that Ed Sheeran will make a guest appearance in the series, without elaborating. Other music stars have guested in the show, but never anyone of the stature of Sheeran who appeared to confirm the news on his Twitter feed.