Game of Thrones finale will feature lots of major character deaths

Game of Thrones season 8 will air on HBO in 2019.

"From a budget standpoint, going into season 2 of Big Little Lies without any options in place, we've been... um... short of raped", she said according to Deadline (perhaps meaning "sort of raped"?).

Francesca Orsi, HBO's senior VP of drama, was on a panel in Jerusalem at the INTV Conference when she suggested that the star-filled cast's salary demands "raped" the network.

"None of the cast had received the scripts prior, and one by one they started falling down to their deaths".

She said it would feel like "corporate malfeasance" for HBO to ignore Game of Thrones' spin-off potential, given the show's global audience. "Then there was applause that lasted 15 minutes".

But making a follow-up to Game of Thrones presents a "conundrum" for the network when it comes to budget.

Orsi was joined on the panel by programming president Casey Bloys with drama chiefs David Levine, moderated by WME's Marc Korman. "More money doesn't always equal better but in some cases the scope of ideas do require it". Orsi said when HBO picked up In Treatment in 2008 - adapted from the HOT series BeTipul - it was a real turning point. Orsi said the network was put in an especially tough spot following the surprise second season renewal of "Big Little Lies", which was originally conceived at HBO as a one-and-done "limited series".

Are you excited about the final season of Game of Thrones and the multiple successor shows that will come after?

"Game of Thrones" is also skyrocketing the network's budget. "They're in the volume business, we're in the curation business", said Bloys. To hear him tell it, many creators prefer HBO's model, because they know their work is going to get more attention. "And as me Da used to say, 'Jesus, it's a bit dragged out isn't it?', so we don't want to drag it out".