HBO finally broke their silence regarding the renewal of Game of Thrones for a third season earlier today, leaving fans hanging for more than a week since the Season 2 premiere as to whether another season was in the cards.
One look at the Season 2 Game of Thrones premiere and subsequent episode ratings provides zero doubt that another trip to Westeros was forthcoming. The premiere episode has racked up a total of 8.3 gross viewers across multiple platforms, and is expected to surpass the 9.3 million viewers per episode average from Season 1.
The second episode of Season 2, ‘The Night Lands,’ dropped less than 3 percent from the premiere when looking exclusively at live viewers. That minimal drop was exactly what HBO was waiting for before formally announcing Season 3 is a go.
Author George R.R. Martin, author of the Song of Ice and Fire book series from which Game of Thrones is based, took HBO’s announcement a step further by stating Season 3 is a 10-episode order, the same as Seasons 1 and 2. He also claims to be writing episode 7 of Season 3, which is tentatively titled ‘Autumn Storms.’ If true, work on Game of Thrones: Season 3 has likely been underway for some time.
Whereas Seasons 1 and 2 of Game of Thrones covered entire books, the 1,200+ page length of book three, ‘A Storm of Swords,’ is expected to force HBO and showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss to break the third book into two seasons. HBO has yet to officially state this is the case, but it has been implied by Benioff and Weiss on multiple occasions.
Next up for Game of Thrones is the third episode of Season 3, titled ‘What Is Dead May Never Die.’ Check out a preview promo from that episode.
