Shortly after the world was graced with the release date for the seventh season of “Game of Thrones” as well as a teaser on Thursday, star Kit Harington promised upcoming episodes will “break boundaries and push past boundaries.”
“I certainly did more this season than I’ve ever done,” Harington told Huffington Post. “I think every actor on it did more action, had more action, had more scenes. They really focused it because less characters are coming in, and they’re focusing in on the existing ones, and there are lots of people who cross paths, and that’s something that I think the audience has been waiting for for a long time.”
He added: “They spent an increasing amount of money on less episodes, so it’s gonna be much bigger in scale, the CGI … we’re trying new things, experimenting with new camera techniques. I think we’re trying to break boundaries and push past boundaries in these final two seasons.”
“You have to live up to the hype that’s surrounded the show and the worst thing would be to end without really pushing and trying new things. Even if it’s a failure, at least trying to go out with a bang,” Harington teased.
The final two seasons — the seventh and eighth — will each be shorter than the typical 10-episode seasons we’ve seen for the past six years, as they’ll only have seven and six episodes each, respectively. And season 7 won’t kick off in the spring the way previous season have, either.
“Game of Thrones” season 7 will kick off on July 16, about three months after the normal time for a new season to start, and after a normal season ends, even — season 6 ended on June 26 last year.
In the past, the show has typically filmed from July to December, but for Season 7 its show-runners moved the schedule back a few months to film through February to allow for a snowier production, given that winter is now here on the show. That delayed shooting schedule then required a delayed premiere date for this season.