These Season 8 reports will make Game of Thrones fans very hopeful

Now that Game of Thrones is back on air, it's all anybody can talk about...

Making it all the more heartbreaking that there are just 11 episodes left of the show in total. Season 7, whose third episode airs tonight, will be the shortest season yet at seven episodes. Season 8 is set to be even shorter again, coming in at just six. However, recent reports give fans cause for hope — suggesting that Season 8 might not be the shortest season just because it has the fewest episodes. Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, HBO programming president Casey Bloys said "We haven't had that discussion yet because I don't know how long the episodes are going to be. Two hours per episode seems like it would be excessive, but it's a great show, so who knows?" Two hours per episode would mean that Season 8 would clock in at 12 hours, so even shaving several hours off of that, fans could still get something similar to the runtime on the old 10-episode seasons. Hours-long episodes have become the norm for Game of Thrones, and it stands to reason that they could be getting even longer as the show hurtles towards its climax. Creator David Benioff confirmed that at least one episode in Season 7 will be 90 minutes long, so it seems safe to speculate that Season 8 could also produce some movie-length instalments.