'Game of Thrones' renewed for third season
You haven’t seen anything yet: Game of Thrones has been officially renewed for a third season by HBO. The network ordered another round of the fantasy hit, which recently debuted its second season to record ratings, then followed up with a nearly identical performance this week.
The third season is expected to be more or less based on the first half of George R.R. Martin’s A Storm of Swords — the third novel of his “Song of Ice and Fire†series of fantasy best-sellers. Long a fan favorite of the book series, Swords has several dramatic twists and confrontations (so … save the date!). Given the book’s length (the paperback edition is 1,216 pages) and action-packed content, producers plan to break up the novel into two seasons.
Martin wrote on his blog that season three is another 10-episode order, but HBO refuses to confirm. The author also notes he’ll pen the seventh episode, tentatively titled “Autumn Storms.â€
“As George and all his fans have said for a long time, there’s no way to do [Swords] in a single season, so it’s being broken into two,†said executive producer David Benioff during a recent interview with EW. “We’re still kind of figuring out exactly what goes where. We don’t want it to feel like a two-part season… From the beginning we’d always prayed we’d get to season 3 at least because, you know, two of our favorite scenes from the entire saga are in season 3.â€
So far Thrones is averaging 3.9 million viewers for debut episodes this season, with the second season premiere’s all-viewing total up to 8.3 million viewers and counting.
