HBO’s medieval fantasy series Game of Thrones may not compete in the 2017 Emmys race since “Winter has not come yet.” The producers are waiting for the actual snow to happen for them to start shooting, but since winter is delayed, fans would have to hold on a little bit more than just ten months, which could be great for other TV shows that have been overshadowed by the critically-acclaimed Game of Thrones.

Last year, Game of  Thrones’ team obtained 12 statuettes of their 24 nominations. In case Game of Thrones can’t compete in the 2017 Emmys, this would be great news for other TV drama series.

GOT-Emmys
Game of Thrones Casting in the 2015 Emmy Awards. Credit: Hidden Remote

Shows like The Leftovers, whose season 2 was much acclaimed might become a real contender in the 2017 Emmys if their season 3 is good as well. Also the sci-fi drama Westworld-an adaption of Michael Crichton’s 1973 film- seems to be a strong competitor. The cast of this new show is plenty of awarded actor that includes Anthony Hopkins, James Marsden, Tessa Thompson, Jimmi Simpson, Evan Rachel Wood, Jeffrey Wright, Thandie Newton, Rodrigo Santoro and Ed Harris.  Another upcoming HBO drama that tells the story of the rise of the porn industry in New York, The Deuce, could get its first Emmy statuette in 2017. This new series has been written by David Simon in collaboration with George Pelicans.

Winter has not come yet

In the last season, winter had come to Winterfell. The cast is waiting for the real winter to come to shoot the upcoming season 7 with real snow. Since the winter season has not come yet in the real world, perhaps for global warming reasons like El Niño, it is unknown when the 7th Game of Thrones season will be on the air.

Regarding the weather conditions to film the show, David Belief, and D.B. Weiss said in an interview with the UFC Unfiltered podcast:

“We’re starting a bit later because at the end of this season, ‘winter is here’ – and that means that sunny weather doesn’t serve our purposes any more. So we kind of pushed everything down the line, so we could get some grim, gray weather even in the sunnier places that we shoot.”

Belief and Weiss said that they were not walking away because the want to tell a complete story.  They say that at the beginning of the series, they wanted to make just seven seasons that would represent the seven kingdoms, seven gods, and seven books; however that has changed because the storytelling has expanded a little bit more. Right now, they are looking want to get between 70 and 75 hours before the credits roll in the last season.

Although some say season 7 will only have seven episodes, HBO has not confirmed the length of the upcoming season yet. It is also expected that the final season of the TV series, based off George R. R. Martin‘s bestselling Song of Ice and Fire series, will likely have less than ten episodes.

Source: IndieWire