Jon Snow is dead, and ‘Game of Thrones’ will have 8th season, HBO exec says

Winter might be coming far beyond a seventh season.

Someone might want to tell “Game of Thrones� show runners David Benioff and Dan Weiss that HBO programming president Michael Lombardo let the dragon out of the bag: The fantasy drama will last at least eight seasons — despite frequent declarations by its Benioff and Weiss that they were only interested in making seven.

“‘Seven seasons and out’ has never been the conversation,� Lombardo told critics Thursday at the Television Critics Assn. press tour in Beverly Hills. “The question is how much beyond seven are we going to do. [Benioff and Weiss] feel like there’s two more years after six. I would always love for them to change their minds.�

Full coverage: Television Crtitics Association press tour 2015

Of course, there are other ways to keep the franchise going. Could a prequel be in the future? Lombardo said the network would certainly consider it.

“I would be open to anything Dan and David want to do,� Lombardo said. “It really would depend fully on what they want to do.... There’s enormous storytelling to be mined in a prequel. We haven’t had any conversations.�

But one aspect of the “Game of Thrones� world was not up for much debate: whether hero Jon Snow — who appeared to be fatally stabbed in the Season 5 finale, which aired in June — is really dead.

“Dead is dead is dead is dead. He be dead. Yes,� Lombardo said. “Everything I’ve seen and heard and read, Jon Snow is indeed dead.�

(Viewers’ hopes and dreams for Snow’s return may not yet be dead – other characters who have died on “Game of Thrones� have been resurrected in one form or another.)

But, hey, what did you expect Lombardo to say?

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