Reported Game of Thrones Season 8 Premiere Date ‘Completely False’

Game of Thrones fans can cross out that reported date for season 8 because it’s evidently false. It was reported earlier that Game of Thrones star, Maisie Williams, had stated the highly anticipated final season would begin airing in April 2019 on HBO. According to, the now refuted quote, that was reported by Metro, Game of Thrones would finish filming in December 2018. This would give the show a shocking few amount of months, four to be exact, to bring the final season to air. However, the truth has turned out to be something much different and far less confirmed.

It’s been known for awhile that there would be a long wait between Game of Thrones season 7 and season 8. The fantasy epic is set to return in 2019 but, obviously, an exact month and date has yet to be nailed down just yet. Maisie William’s previous supposed comments did line up with the typical season premieres of Game of Thrones. However, the final season of the series should be anything but typical.

The discrepancy was cleared up by Williams herself. After apparently seeing the story circle around with her “quote,” Williams took to her Twitter account to clarify that the statement, while not a complete manufacture, is far more accurate. It certainly doesn’t reveal the air month of the final season of Game of Thrones. Maisie Williams wrote that it’s from an very old interview was somehow retrofitted to apply to season 8.

It’s unclear what season Williams was referring to exactly in the original interview with Metro. Although it could have been almost any season. Game of Thrones has typically begun airing in April of each year. The notable exception being season 7, which had a later start date of August. This was due to the filming restrictions of the season.

Those filming restrictions occurred because winter had finally arrived in Westeros and the show needed some locations to look decidedly more wintery. It would, therefore, stand to reason that whenever season 8 hits in 2019, it’ll also be later in the year as Westeros will be need to be even further into its long and dangerous winter. The invasion of the White Walkers won’t feel nearly as believable if everything surrounding them in bright and sunny.

Filming for season 8 is already set to be the most ambitious and daunting yet. The year long delay between season 8 and 9 is occurring to give the series the proper time to prepare for all the logistics of the gigantic series. Filming has already been confirmed to go through Summer 2018, after beginning at the end of 2017. So while it’s possible it all might wrap up in December 2018, that’s probably not information that Williams (or any other actor) has at this time.

Of course, the truth does come as a little bit of a blow to fans hoping to get their Game of Thrones fix as soon as possible. Still, April 2019 being the beginning of the end for Game of Thrones always seemed pretty unfeasible, given what is known about the final season.

Maisie Williams clarifying her quote doesn’t mean that Game of Thrones season 8 won’t begin airing in April. It’s certainly still possible. It just means that the actress, nor anyone else has confirmed when Game of Thrones will start to wrap up.