The final season of 'Game of Thrones' is going to be even shorter than we thought

We knew time was running out for 'Game of Thrones'. We knew there were only two seasons left and that both of those seasons were going to be shorter than the ten-episode runs we are used to... 

But we weren't quite ready for this: the final season of 'Game of Thrones' is going to be just six episodes long. 

'It’s only going to be six episodes for the final season,' showrunner David Benioff said at the South by Southwest Film Festival in Texas. 'From the beginning we’ve wanted to tell a 70-hour movie. It will turn out to be a 73-hour movie, but it’s stayed relatively the same of having the beginning, middle and now we’re coming to the end.'

'It would have been really tough if we lost any core cast members along the way, I’m very happy we’ve kept everyone and we get to finish it the way we want to,' he added, before revealing that they’ve already divvied up who gets to write each episode and joking: 'We argued over who got to kill Sansa.' 

In other 'Game of Thrones' news, Ed Sheeran is going to make a cameo appearance in the upcoming penultimate season. Who he is playing is still under wraps, but Dan Weiss and David Benioff revealed they'd been trying to get him on set for a while. 

'For years we were trying to get Ed Sheeran on the show to surprise Maisie and this year we finally did it,' they said, explaining that Maisie Williams, who plays Ayra Stark, is a huge fan. 

Sheeran isn't the first music star to appear in Westeros. 'Game of Thrones' has also played host to Gary Lightbody of Snow Patrol, Will Champion from Coldplay, Sigur Rós, and Mastodon.

'Game of Thrones' will be back on July 16.

In other news, here's why you need to watch new US thriller ‘Big Little Lies’, 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer' has just turned 20 and Tom Hardy will be back on CBeebies for Mother's Day.