According to EW, HBO's Game Of Thrones is gearing up for a "super-sized" third season. Fans have been hoping that as the series progressed, the seasons would run a little longer - in keeping with the ever expanding volumes of George R.R. Martin's Song Of Ice And Fire saga. Well, there will still be only 10 episodes for season 3, but those familiar with the largest novel in the series, "A Storm Of Swords", will be happy to hear that they will be able to cram in a little more from that third book thanks to longer episode running times..
“There’s almost another full episode’s worth of extra minutes spread across the season,” says Dan Weiss.
“One of the great liberties with HBO is we’re not forced to come in at a specific time. We can’t be under 50 minutes or over 60, but that gives us a lot of flexibility.” David Benioff adds,
“A super-sized season, as befitting Storm of Swords. Last year we had a lot of 52-minute episodes. This year is a lot of 56, 57. So for people clamoring for another episode, it’s in there, It’s just been cut into tiny pieces.”
Apparently the team had to request special permission from HBO to have the season 3 finale run over an hour, something unheard of for the network until now.
Game Of Thrones returns to our screens for its third season on 31/03/13.