Despite rumours, Game of Thrones episodes will NOT be longer this year

Entertainment Weekly, which has a very close relationship with the show's producers, seems pretty confident when it says that while the new series will indeed be shorter (it’ll have seven instalments instead of the usual ten) the episodes themselves will NOT be significantly longer than we’ve seen before.

The season seven opener was billed by some as being ‘the longest ever’ but will apparently run for 58 minutes, meaning three series previous premieres have been slightly longer and three slightly shorter.

The only season seven episode that’s going to be in any way mammoth in size is the finale, which is expected to have a run time of well over an hour. That’s not surprising, given the fact that season seven is said to move at a much faster pace, lining all of the main players up for some serious action.

It’ll also set us up for Game of Thrones season eight, which will be the shortest ever with just six episodes.

The end is coming! And we’re not sure we’re ready to say goodbye.

Game of Thrones Season 7 premieres exclusively on 17th July on Sky Atlantic and NOW TV at 2am, repeated at 9pm on the same day