HBO Announces ‘Game of Thrones’ Season 8 Episode Runtimes: Four Episodes Feature Length
Zack Sharf
HBO disappointed some fans when announcing earlier this week the first two episodes of “Game of Thrones” Season 8 would clock in under two hours. The season premiere, directed by “The Rains of Castamere” helmer David Nutter, will run 54 minutes, while the second episode, also directed by Nutter, will be slightly longer at 58 minutes. Rumor had it every episode of the show’s final season would be feature length, but that’s not the case. Fortunately, the remaining episodes in Season 8 will all run well over 60 minutes.
In a press release, HBO has provided the estimated runtimes for all six episodes of “Game of Thrones” Season 8. The longest episode of the season will be the fourth, directed by Miguel Sapochnik. None of the episodes have titles, but the fourth will run one hour and 22 minutes. Sapochnik is also directing the penultimate episode of the series, which will run one hour and 20 minutes. That runtime will be matched by the series finale, directed by “Game of Thrones” showrunners David Benioff and D. B. Weiss.
The Emmys announced this year it considers projects over 75 minutes to be a feature film and therefore eligible for its Outstanding Television Movie prize. In terms of theaters, most exhibitors consider 80 minutes the benchmark for playing a theatrical release. The Academy mandates films must be longer than 40 minutes in order qualify for feature-length categories.
The complete list of “Game of Thrones” Season 8 runtimes is below. HBO has stressed these are estimated runtimes for now, so the final releases could run shortly longer or shorter than what is listed. The final season begins Sunday, April 14 on HBO.
Season 8, episode 1
Debut date: SUNDAY, APRIL 14 at 9:00 p.m. (ET/PT)
Estimated running time: 0:54
Season 8, episode 2
Debut date: SUNDAY, APRIL 21 at 9:00 p.m. (ET/PT)
Estimated running time: 0:58
Season 8, episode 3
Debut date: SUNDAY, APRIL 28 at 9:00 p.m. (ET/PT)
Estimated running time: 1:22
Season 8, episode 4
Debut date: SUNDAY, MAY 5 at 9:00 p.m. (ET/PT)
Estimated running time: 1:18
Season 8, episode 5
Debut date: SUNDAY, MAY 12 at 9:00 p.m. (ET/PT)
Estimated running time: 1:20
Season 8, episode 6
Debut date: SUNDAY, MAY 19 at 9:00 p.m. (ET/PT)
Estimated running time: 1:20
