It's official: 'Game of Thrones' will wait until 2019 to kill all your favorite characters

Though we figured this was coming for quite a while, HBO has finally confirmed that there will be no new Game of Thrones in 2018 and, instead, we'll have to wait until 2019 to see the final season.

The announcement came via a tweet from HBO's PR department and also confirmed that the final season will be made up of only six episodes. Though the official return date hasn't been announced, we're on the record as guessing March 2019 and we're sticking to it.

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Sansa Stark herself, actress Sophie Turner, talked about the delay back in December and it was even discussed widely before that.

The show's seventh season, which was a smashing success during the summer of 2017 thanks to dragons, among other things, was delayed due to production having to take place during the winter of 2016-2017, but that delay was only by a few months, not years.

So with the longer production schedule and smaller episode order now confirmed, it's looking more and more like those rumors of slightly longer-than-usual episodes may be true as well.

For now, though, grip your Jon Snow doll tightly during these cold winter months and know that even if the wait is long, it will be so so so so worth it when the final season airs and you get to see that dragon swallow Cersei Lannister whole.