The budget for the final episodes of the hit HBO series is much bigger than the standard for expensive TV episodes.
- Sep 27, 2017
AceShowbiz - "Game of Thrones" will go big for its final season. Just look at the amount of money that HBO is going to spend for the final six episodes of the series if you're still not convinced. According to Variety, the final episodes of the show will cost $15 million apiece.
In recent years, the standard for expensive TV episodes has been around $10 million per episode. It's also what an episode of "Game of Thrones" has cost HBO for the past few years. But since the final six episodes of the hit medieval drama will all reportedly be feature-length, it's understandable that the budget of the final season is much bigger than the previous seasons.
Moreover, the eighth and final season of "Thrones" may require more special effects as it is expected to feature a dragon-on-dragon battle between Drogon and his undead brother Viserion in the Great War to Come. The battle scenes will also be costly as there will be the army of the undead, the Dothrakis and more marching soldiers in the war.
In related news, HBO has revealed the names of directors for the final season of "Thrones". Familiar persons like Miguel Sapochnik ("The Battle of the Bastards" and "The Winds of Winter") and David Nutter ("The Rains of Castamere", "The Dance of Dragons" and "Mother's Mercy") will return for the last installment of the series.
Showrunners David Benioff and Dan Weiss, who previously directed episodes "Walk of Punishment" and "Two Swords", will also serve as directors for season 8. They reportedly will be responsible for the final episode.
Filming on the final season will kick off next month and it could continue until as late as August 2018. HBO has not announced whether the last season will air in 2018 or 2019. "Our production people are trying to figure out a timeline for the shoot and how much time the special effects take," HBO's president of programming Casey Bloys told The Hollywood Reporter.
Bloys also recently revealed that they planned to shoot multiple versions of the ending of season 8 to avoid leaks. "I know in 'Game of Thrones', the ending, they're going to shoot multiple versions so that nobody really know what happens," he said as quoted by The Morning Call.
Bloys added, "You have to do that on a long show. Because when you're shooting something, people know. So they're going to shoot multiple versions so that there's no real definitive answer until the end."
