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'Game of Thrones' final episodes might be as long as movies

Lights, camera, Westeros! Fans may have to wait a long time for the HBO hit's final season, but once it arrives, the episodes should be worth it.

Gael Cooper
CNET editor Gael Fashingbauer Cooper, a journalist and pop-culture junkie, is co-author of "Whatever Happened to Pudding Pops? The Lost Toys, Tastes and Trends of the '70s and '80s," as well as "The Totally Sweet '90s." She's been a journalist since 1989, working at Mpls.St.Paul Magazine, Twin Cities Sidewalk, the Minneapolis Star Tribune, and NBC News Digital. She's Gen X in birthdate, word and deed. If Marathon candy bars ever come back, she'll be first in line.
Expertise Breaking news, entertainment, lifestyle, travel, food, shopping and deals, product reviews, money and finance, video games, pets, history, books, technology history, generational studies. Credentials
  • Co-author of two Gen X pop-culture encyclopedia for Penguin Books. Won "Headline Writer of the Year"​ award for 2017, 2014 and 2013 from the American Copy Editors Society. Won first place in headline writing from the 2013 Society for Features Journalism.
Gael Cooper
Watch this: New 'Game of Thrones' trailer shows buildup to huge war

No question, "Game of Thrones" episodes already feel like mini-movies, with their amazing special effects, complex plots and stunning settings. But when season 8, the final season of the HBO fantasy hit, rolls around in 2018 or 2019, the "mini" part of that description may no longer apply.

"Thrones" sound designer Patricia Fairfield spoke at the convention Con of Thrones in Nashville over the weekend, and according to David Chen, co-host of the "Cast of Kings" fan podcast, reported that the final-season episodes could all be movie-length.

The show might need those super-sized episodes. There are plenty of plotlines still in flux, and while the episodes may be longer than normal, it's been well-publicized that there are only seven episodes in the upcoming season and just six in the final season. Heck, some of us would watch 13 episodes just of Tyrion musing about wine, or Tormund making eyes at Brienne, or Little Lady Mormont rallying the troops. Long episodes, short episodes, bring 'em on.

Season 7 of "Game of Thrones" premieres July 16. 

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New 'Game of Thrones' trailer, broken down shot by shot

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