It’s been rumoured for a while now, but HBO has confirmed that the seventh season of Game of Thrones will run for only seven episodes in total. That’s three less than normal, but with showrunners David Benioff and D. B. Weiss recently stating that they only feel like there’s around 13 – 15 hours worth of story left, this honestly shouldn’t come as a huge surprise.

However, as if that wasn’t bad enough, we’re going to have to wait for the next season until summer 2017! Game of Thrones has traditionally premiered in April, so we’re going to have a few extra months to wait and see what comes next as Dany makes her way to Westeros.

Another interesting titbit is that shooting will take place in Northern Ireland, Spain, and Iceland, especially as the latter has always been used for scenes set North of the Wall. That no doubt points to us spending more time there as the battle with the Night King looms.

“Now that winter has arrived on Game of Thrones, executive producers David Benioff and D.B. Weiss felt that the storylines of the next season would be better served by starting production a little later than usual, when the weather is changing,” said Casey Bloys, president, HBO programming in a statement today. “Instead of the show’s traditional spring debut, we’re moving the debut to summer to accommodate the shooting schedule.”

The biggest downside for HBO here is that Game of Thrones will likely air too late to be eligible for next year’s Emmys, and that’s going to make 2017’s award race very interesting.