'Game of Thrones' execs confirm plans for 13-15 more episodes

LOS ANGELES, June 28 (UPI) -- Game of Thrones will indeed come to a close after 13-15 more episodes.

Executive producers David Benioff and D.B. Weiss revealed plans for two final seasons in an interview with Deadline following the HBO show's Season 6 finale Sunday.

"It's two more seasons we're talking about," Benioff said. "From pretty close to the beginning, we talked about doing this in 70-75 hours, and that's what we'll end up with. Call it 73 for now ... We've known the end for quite some time and we're hurtling towards it."

"Daenerys is finally coming back to Westeros; Jon Snow is king of the North and Cersei is sitting on the Iron Throne. And we know the Night King is up there, waiting for all of them," he recounted. "The pieces are on the board now."

"It's not supposed to be an ongoing show, where every season it's trying to figure out new storylines," Benioff explained. "We wanted it to be one giant story, without padding it out to add an extra 10 hours, or because people are still watching it."

Benioff and Weiss had previously revealed they were considering ending Game of Thrones with abbreviated seasons. Each season thus far has consisted of 10 one-hour episodes, with two slightly longer runtimes in Season 6.

"I think we're down to our final 13 episodes after this season. We're heading into the final lap," Benioff told Variety in April. "That's the guess, though, nothing is yet set in stone, but that's what we're looking at."

Season 7 will feature Lena Headey as Cersei Lannister, Emilia Clarke as Daenerys Targaryen and Kit Harington as Jon Snow. Headey reacted to the Season 6 finale in a new interview, saying Cersei will likely be more "dangerous" in Season 7.