'Game of Thrones' TV series latest news: Season 8 to be longer than six episodes?

HBO's high fantasy television series "Game of Thrones" is set to conclude after the airing of its eighth season in 2018, and its showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss had previously stated that the show's last season will have a much shorter episode order than earlier seasons. However, recent news now suggests that "Game of Thrones" season 8 could be longer than initially intended.

Last year, Benioff and Weiss had revealed their intentions to finish the hit TV series at 73 hours, with seven episodes set to be released in the upcoming seventh season of the show and six more episodes in its eighth and final season.

However, HBO's programming president Casey Bloys has recently revealed that the bosses behind "Game of Thrones" are still figuring out exactly how many episodes they plan to air during the show's final season.

"They're still figuring out the shape of the season, what they want to do," Bloys told Entertainment Weekly. "I'll take as many as they want to do. If they give me eight, I'll want 10. But it's really up to them. They'll let me know," he added.

Bloys also revealed whether or not HBO currently has plans to develop a spin-off TV series based on the fictional world that author George R. R. Martin had created in "A Song of Ice and Fire."

"It's such a big property we would be foolish not to explore it, but it's a pretty high bar," Bloys said. "We'll take some shots at it. I'm not going to do it just to do it. It has to feel very special. I would rather have no sequel and leave it as-is then have something we rushed out," he went on to say.

Should HBO decide to create another series based on "Game of Thrones," Bloys noted that a prequel series, which uses existing characters, is more likely to be developed than a spin-off. According to the HBO programming president, creating a prequel series has less pressure on it given the vast history of Westeros.

Should there be a prequel series, "Game of Thrones" showrunners Benioff and Weiss have made it clear early on that they probably won't be a part of it.