When Does Season 8 of Game of Thrones Start? Well, We've Got News . . .

If you'd rather get roasted alive by dragon fire than endure the long wait for Game of Thrones to return, then we suggest you start picking out a vase for your ashes now. As much as it pains us to relay this information, HBO's fantasy drama won't drop season eight until some to-be-determined date in 2019. That being said, we have some new, exciting information to share: it will drop at some to-be-determined date in the first half of 2019. So that's something!

HBO programming president Casey Bloys revealed the good-ish news at the Television Critics Association press tour this week, where he also gave a clue as to what fans can expect from Jon Snow (Kit Harington), Daenerys Targaryen (Emilia Clarke), and Tyrion Lannister (Peter Dinklage) in the final six episodes: "It's pretty great." Well . . . OK then! We'll take it.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, production on Game of Thrones didn't resume until October of last year, and could run as late as August 2018. That means that the eighth season, which is, again, only six episodes long, will leave at least a 16-month gap between seasons. "Our production people are trying to figure out a timeline for the shoot and how much time the special effects take," Bloys explained in 2017. "The shooting is complicated enough — on different continents, with all the technical aspects — and the special effects are a whole other production period that we're trying to figure out. That is a big factor in all of this."

Sophie Turner, who plays Sansa, confirmed the release date in December 2017, and Bloys later added that the lengthy break was due to showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss being "perfectionists."

The bright side of this is that while we all wither from old age, the Game of Thrones cast has been sharing some goodbye Instagram posts that just might contain a few clues. And on top of that, there are still plenty of Reddit theories about whether or not Bran is really the Night King, if Qyburn isn't as creepy as he seems, and all that auntie-nephew weirdness, if you're into that sort of thing.