HBO tease a Game of Thrones spin-off for once the show finally ends

We all knew that Game of Thrones would have to finish up eventually, but that didn't make the confirmation from HBO that season 8 will indeed be the last any less of a kick in the teeth.

On one hand, the writers are leaving themselves with precious little room for padding and tedious story arcs. Daenerys has finally got her shit together and boarded a ship to Westeros, while Cersei has managed to knock off half of the contenders to the Iron Throne in one fell swoop, forcibly claiming it for herself. Jon Snow, who was dead five minutes ago, is King in the North, Arya's flying through her kill list, and the insufferable Littlefinger is bound to have to something up his sleeve when we return to the Seven Kingdoms. Basically, it's all kicking off, and they've got to tie everything up in two seasons. There's no room for downtime. On the other, we really don't know what the internet is expected to do without all the eye-opening fan theories, collective shock at every big-name death and, most importantly, the sweet sweet memes. But even if we are approaching with home straight with the main show, it sounds as though showrunners D.B. Weiss and David Benioff aren't ruling out a potential spinoff in the future. According to the Hollywood Reporter, New HBO programming president Casey Bloys has already floated the idea with the pair, and his comments are reassuring.

"We've talked about it," he said. "It's not something I'm opposed to, but it has to make sense creatively. I'm not sure the guys can wrap their heads around it when they are about to start production. We're open to it — the guys aren't opposed to it, but there's no concrete plans right now."

Bloys also admitted that he'd have been happy to see the show run for even longer, but knows better than to interfere with the creative vision.

He added: "They have a very specific plan about the number of seasons they want to do. If I could get them to do more, I would take 10 seasons, but we want to take their lead with what they could do and what the best version of the show is."

As for the shape any spinoff might take, well that remains anyone's guess. Just give us direwolves, dragons and the odd 800-man sword fight, and we're in.