'Game of Thrones' showrunners may end series with shorter seasons

LOS ANGELES, April 15 (UPI) -- Game of Thrones showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss have discussed the possibility of the hit HBO fantasy drama ending with shorter seasons.

"I think we're down to our final 13 episodes after this season. We're heading into the final lap," Benioff said to Variety Thursday of potential plans following the upcoming Season 6.

"That's the guess, though nothing is yet set in stone, but that's what we're looking at."

Throughout its run, every season of Game of Thrones has contained 10 one-hour long episodes. The same can be said for Season 6 however, Entertainment Weekly has reported that the series potentially only has 13 hours left of content to be split between a proposed Season 7 and Season 8.

"We've known for several years now how many hours, roughly we want it to go," Benioff said to Entertainment Weekly. "It hasn't changed."

Nothing however has been officially decided and set in stone. "In every conversation, that's been [the showrunners'] thinking," added HBO entertainment president Michael Lombardo to Entertainment Weekly. "It will be interesting to see how strongly they feel about being definitive about that when we are in a position to announce seasons 7 and 8."

Game of Thrones returns to HBO on April 24.

On Tuesday, star John Bradley shared a new clip from the upcoming season giving fans their first glimpse at his character Samwell and Hannah Murray's character Gilly during an appearance on Conan.