'Game of Thrones' season 8 news: showrunner still deciding the number of episodes for the series finale outing

It is no secret that "Game of Thrones" only has two seasons left in its pockets. And now that season 7 production as already wrapped up, it is curious as to why up until now season 8 still has not been able to determine its number of episodes.

As it turns out, it is not something that should cause concern as it is just simply a matter of the showrunners, David Benioff and Dan Weiss, still mulling on how they will treat the juggernaut show's finale. This is despite the fact that the duo initially revealed that they plan to contain the show in just 73 hours.

"They're still figuring out the shape of the season, what they want to do," HBO's programming president, Casey Bloys, exclusively 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.

Naturally, with folks behind "Game of Thrones" already having some ideas about where the show's last season will pick up and how the series will end, they should at least have a timetable in mind on how to tackle the narrative for season 8. But with George R. R. Martin's novels still in production, it may actually have a hand in determining the pace and maybe even the series finale of the HBO original content.

Furthermore, Bloys also briefly talked about the supposed development of a "Game of Thrones" prequel series after the main show tidies up. With the amount of interest that the fantastical drama has garnered since it broke out on the small screen, it is almost safe to say that anything tagged with it will also generate buzz. However, the network is being really careful not to overdo it with the company exec revealing that he does not feel any pressure putting out the additional content.

"It's such a big property we would be foolish not to explore it, but it's a pretty high bar," he admitted. "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.

Meanwhile, fans can take solace in the penultimate season of "Game of Thrones" airing in a couple of months despite being a bit delayed for this year. Instead of returning back to air this April, season 7 of the series is scheduled to debut sometime in the summer.