Game of Thrones is going to try its best to fight the leaks that have dogged the show for years now in advance of its final season.
HBO president Casey Bloys claimed in a recent chat with Pennsylvania's Morning Call that Game of Thrones producers David Benioff and D. B. Weiss have devised a potentially genius strategy to preserve the show's climax.
"I know in Game of Thrones, the ending, they're going to shoot multiple versions so that nobody really know what happens," he said.
"You have to do that on a long show. Because when you're shooting something, people know. So they're going to shoot multiple versions so that there's no real definitive answer until the end."
Whichever ending that Benioff and Weiss ultimately decide on is sure to face scrutiny from Game of Thrones' passionate fans, who were miffed about some of the creative choices made this past year.
"Finales are tough," Bloys admits. "If you think about, Six Feet Under, well that was a pretty good finale. But if you think about Seinfeld, if you think about The Sopranos, if you think about Breaking Bad. Everybody has an opinion about how a show should end."
This attempt at subterfuge in terms of the ending is probably necessary, considering that hackers threatened to release spoilers about upcoming Game of Thrones episodes on a weekly basis throughout the most recent season.
Then there was an entire episode leak thanks to a security breach with Game of Thrones' Indian broadcasting partner — a crime that ultimately led to four arrests.
Game of Thrones is expected to go back into production later in the year, but Bloys has previously refused to be drawn on whether the eighth and final season will air next year or in 2019.
"We honestly don't know yet [when the final episodes will air]," Benioff admitted over the summer. "There's been a lot of back and forth about air dates. That's a long way off from being settled."
