'Game of Thrones' Season 8 release date: When will fans see the last season of the show air?

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The HBO panel at Saturday's Television Critics Association gave us a lot of news regarding HBO viewers' favourite TV shows. From among the news titbits that we gathered, we learned that the epic series "Game of Thrones" has two seasons left.

So far, the six seasons that have aired include a total of 60 episodes. Back in June, io9 reported that the showrunners confirmed the existence of a total of around 15 episodes for the remaining two seasons. Hit Fix notes that HBO's president of programming Casey Bloys announced that Season 8 would be the last.

Regarding the airing of Season 7, Game & Guide notes that although each season in the series normally has a spring opening, this time around, things may change a bit. The show's executive producers David Benioff and D.B. Weiss believe that since the new season is scheduled to feature only seven episodes, starting off the seventh season at a later date than usual would be ideal.

Bloys conceded that delaying Season 7 to the summer of next year will mean that the show will not be able to participate in the 2017 Emmy race. The programming chief went on to disclose, "[The awards are] not our main goal. The main goal is to do the best show for our subscribers and fans. ... [The Emmy fallout] is just something we have to live with."

TV Line gives us more news about the hit series. Apparently, Bloys also went on to state that a possible spin-off may happen much, much later. "We've talked about it," he said. "It's something I'm not opposed to, but it has to make sense creatively. I'm open to it. The guys aren't opposed to it, but there's no concrete plans."

Season 8, meanwhile, may happen in 2018. However, that may, or may not, be the last we see of our favourite "Game of Thrones" characters.