JUST watched (and for me it's a 'first time', because I ONLY watch TV on DVD) GAME OF THRONES....with it ending in a super cliff hanger, I would have waited to watch it till Season 8 comes out.... I went searching...and just read:
All good things must come to an end, and Game of Thrones fans will soon be making their final trip to Westeros. Here's everything we know so far about the eight (and final) season of the hit fantasy epic:
When is Games of Thrones season 8 on TV?
As yet, no firm broadcast date has been given for the final series � but it could be a long wait. In June 2017, HBO's head of programming Casey Bloys said that it might not reach our screens until 2019, due to the lengthy writing and production process.
Actress Sophie Turner (who plays Sansa Stark) appeared to confirm that release date in an interview with Variety. "Game of Thrones comes out in 2019," she told the magazine in December.
In a further crushing blow for Thrones fans, Bloys has also hinted there could be another agonizing wait between the end of Game of Thrones and the beginning of the first spin-off show. "You�re not going to see anything air anytime close to the season 8 finale," he said.
How many episodes will there be in season 8?
The eighth season will be the shortest yet, with only six episodes, making it shorter than the penultimate season (seven episodes), and much shorter than the first six seasons of the show (which had 10 episodes each).
Who is in the final series?
All the main cast-members will return for the final series. As this is Game of Thrones, however, we can't be sure who will survive until the very end. Although it is an ensemble show, the cast's salaries might give some indication which characters will be given the most prominence in the final season: in 2017, Variety reported that five cast members � Peter Dinklage (Tyrion), Nikolaj Coster-Waldau (Jaime), Lena Headey (Cersei), Emilia Clarke (Daenerys) and Kit Harington (Jon Snow) � were all being paid $500,000 per episode.
Other returning cast members including Liam Cunningham (Davos), Sophie Turner (Sansa), Maisie Williams (Arya), Nathalie Emmanuel (Missandei) and Gwendoline Christie (Brienne).
Who will write season 8?
The final series will keep the show's four-strong writing team of DB Weiss, David Benioff, Dave Hill and Brian Cogman. Although George RR Martin was a guest-writer for a few episodes in the show's first four seasons, he will not return for season eight.
Hill will write the season premiere and Cogman will write the second episode, while Benioff and Weiss will share the remaining four episodes between them.
The TV series has already overtaken its source, George RR Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire. The plot of the final series will be based on his notes from the final two unfinished novels in Martin's series, The Winds of Winter and A Dream of Spring.
With the final season of Game of Thrones delayed until 2019, it is possible (albeit unlikely) that The Winds of Winter may be published before season eight hits our screens. Martin has already released several excerpts from the novel, suggesting that progress is well under way. In January 2017, he told his fans he expected the book to be published before the end of the year. Although that estimate turned out to be unrealistic, it does suggest he has nearly finished the long-awaited tome.