Game of Thrones season 7 will be shorter and debut later

We've been hearing a lot about how things are about to change in the world of Game of Thrones and now it's official - not only will season 7 be a shorter run but it also won't premiere until later.

The seasons to date have tended to arrive around April, though that has moved around by a few weeks. Now official word from HBO says that we won't be seeing any new episodes until summer 2017, and there's a pretty good reason.

It's all about winter. If you're keeping up with the show you'll know that winter is finally here and that means a certain kind of weather is needed to shoot many of the outdoor scenes. As that would be difficult to accomplish with a late summer shoot, they've moved everything along a few weeks.