Summer is coming: ‘Game of Thrones’ reveals later-than-usual 2017 return date

As “Game of Thrones” fans know, building and/or reclaiming an empire takes time. And, in a departure, it will take a bit longer than usual for HBO’s blockbuster series to return.

The network revealed Monday that “Game of Thrones” will deviate from its usual spring return date and instead will begin production on a seventh season later this summer to meet a planned air date of summer 2017.

“Now that winter has arrived on ‘Game of Thrones,’ executive producers David Benioff and D.B. Weiss felt that the story lines of the next season would be better served by starting production a little later than usual, when the weather is changing,” Casey Bloys, HBO’s president of programming, said in a statement. “We’re moving the debut to summer to accommodate the shooting schedule.”

Filming for the seven-episode season will be based in Northern Ireland with Spain and Iceland also among the locations, the last of which will presumably provide plenty of that wintry Westeros look.

While it may be difficult to process having to wait a few more months more for an abbreviated next chapter (“Game of Thrones” typically offers a 10-episode season), fans can take comfort in knowing that the change of seasons is inevitable. As is, with only an eighth and final season still to go, the end.

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