Most of the episodes of Game of Thrones' last season are pretty much movies


Game of Thrones fans have some long nights ahead of them this season.
HBO has revealed the running time for each episode of the series' eighth and final season, per Entertainment Weekly. While the first two aren't unusually long — they'll be 54 minutes and 58 minutes respectively — the last four will all be well over an hour. Episode 3 is 82 minutes, while episode 4 is 78 minutes, episode 5 is 80 minutes, and the series finale is again 80 minutes.
Game of Thrones broke its own record when the Season 7 finale came in at about 80 minutes, making this the longest episode ever. But for the final season, that will be the norm for the last several weeks. IndieWire points out that 80 minutes is generally considered to be the minimum running time for a theatrically-released feature film, although at the Emmys, the minimum length to qualify as a TV movie is 75 minutes.
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Interestingly, the longest episode of the season is not the finale but rather the third episode, which is reportedly the highly-anticipated battle episode that has been touted as featuring the "longest consecutive battle sequence ever committed to film," as Entertainment Weekly writes. Yes, that's including all the battles from the Lord of the Rings trilogy.
Game of Thrones will return for its final season on April 14.
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Brendan worked as a culture writer at The Week from 2018 to 2023, covering the entertainment industry, including film reviews, television recaps, awards season, the box office, major movie franchises and Hollywood gossip. He has written about film and television for outlets including Bloody Disgusting, Showbiz Cheat Sheet, Heavy and The Celebrity Cafe.
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