It sounds like Game of Thrones season 7 is getting snowed out.
Which sounds like a joke, but it’s really not. Season 7 of the popular HBO series will start later than normal due to, of all things, the weather. Winter is here, which means the production needs snow and winter-y weather.
In an interview on UFC Unfiltered, Game of Thrones creators David Benioff and D.B. Weiss admitted that the release of the next season will be pushed back. Although they did not specify by how long.
“We don’t have an air date yet, but next year will probably be a little bit later. We’re starting a little bit later because, you know, the end of the season ‘Winter is here,’ and that means sunny weather doesn’t really serve our purposes anymore. So we kind of pushed everything down the line so we can get some grim grey weather, even in the sunnier places we shoot.”
It’s a long podcast, but you can find the good stuff around the 40:00 mark.
So maybe the weather doesn’t seem like it should be a big deal, but as they’ve been telling us for 6 seasons now, winter is coming. And if you’ve seen the recent finale, you know that winter is finally here. Aside from being a slogan for house Stark, the whole “winter is coming” foretells that the end is near. Additionally, winter in the seven kingdoms isn’t as short or somewhat predictable as ours. Winter can last months or years without end.
Not to mention, this means that the whitewalkers are on their way.
While we can look forward to story-lines beginning to wrap up and reach exciting conclusions, we will have to wait a while. But I’m sure we can expect season 7 to be worth the wait.
Another great morsel from the interview is an update on Gendry. (Finally!) When asked about the fate of Gendry (Joe Dempsie), Benioff jokingly said, “He’s still rowing. Think of the shape he’s in after rowing for four seasons. Big lats.”
Hopefully by acknowledging the fact that the last anyone saw of Robert Baratheon’s bastard son he was in a rowboat means that we will finally see the return of Gendry and get some closure with that unresolved story-line.
We will have to wait and see when we can expect the premiere date for Game of Thrones season 7. All 6 season are currently available to stream on HBO GO or HBO Now.