Game of Thrones season 8 is longer than the first season of Stranger Things

Despite having two fewer episodes, Game of Thrones season 8 will have a runtime longer than the first season of Netflix’s Stranger Things.

Game of Thrones season 8 episodes are going to be super-long! According to a report from our friends at Winter Is Coming, almost every episode will be longer than an hour, on average.

The first two episodes of the new season come in at 54 and 58 minutes, respectively, according to the report, and the third episode is exactly one hour. The final three episodes of the series are almost an hour and 20 minutes long, each. That’s a pretty big time commitment every Sunday for three weeks this spring!

That’s a huge step up from pretty much every other season of the series. Most Game of Thrones episodes hover around the 50-minute mark, while only a select few have ever gone over the hour mark.

To put it in perspective, Game of Thrones season 8 is longer than the first season of Stranger Things and nearly as long as Stranger Things 2. That’s kind of wild considering the first season of Stranger Things is eight episodes and the second season consists of nine episodes.

Based on the runtime, I don’t think the producers would have had any problem extending the final season to eight episodes.

While most Game of Thrones will, no doubt, love the longer episodes, I have a few worries. Those are super-long episodes by any stretch. Easily, the creators could have split the final three episodes into four episodes and kept them around the hour mark. I wonder why they’ve chosen to do it this way.

If this wasn’t Game of Thrones, I’d be worried the final episodes might feel like a drag with these extended runtimes. I know I’m in the minority here, but three episodes spanning four hours feels like a lot of TV for most viewers.

There are so many loose ends to tie up, so I get why they need the extra time. But, if they’ve extended the episodes to tie up those loose ends, I hope it doesn’t feel like they are just rushing to end the series by cramming as much into those last few episodes as they can. That isn’t fair to the fans who have watched and waited for so many years.

Game of Thrones season 8 premieres on HBO on April 14. If you still aren’t caught up, Netflix has a great way to watch, especially if you aren’t a huge fan of the series!