Kit Harington, Peter Dinklage, Lena Heady, Emilla Clarke and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau will get big raises for Game of Thrones Seasons 7 and 8.
It looks like Jon Snow, Tyrion Lannister, Daenerys Targaryen, Cersei and Jaime Lannister will survive to see Season 7 of Game of Thrones.
As reported by Deadline, the actors who play those characters, Kit Harington, Peter Dinklage, Lena Heady, Emilla Clarke, and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, have signed new contracts to stay with the show through an eighth season. The new deal will reportedly net each actor somewhere north of $500,000 per episode. That is an increase of $200,000 for those five, who signed their previous deals back in 2014. There is no news yet on the contract negotiations for any of the other cast members.
Game of Thrones has been officially renewed for a seventh season, and though it is widely believed that the show will end after eight seasons, nothing has been confirmed beyond Season 7 at this point. Also up in the air is how long those seasons will be. All past seasons have been 10 episodes, but there are reports that the final two seasons could be significantly shorter. Based on comments made by the showrunners, speculation is that Season 7 will be seven episodes and Season 8 would be just six episodes.
No matter how many hours the show has left, it is secure that its main stars will be around until the end or until they get killed off. This is Game of Thrones, so these new contracts do not mean the characters will all live to see the final credits roll. It does however, give a pretty good sign that Tyrion, Jon, Dany, Cersei, and Jaime will make it out of Sunday’s Season 6 finale. It would be very odd for HBO to let details of new contracts go public, when an actor involved won’t actually be using it. Unless, this is a way to throw the fans off the scent of a major death.
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