After a day of rumours, HBO has confirmed that the last two episodes of the sixth season - episode nine and ten, that is - will be longer than usual. The network also revealed the names for the episodes, which might be spoiler-y in themselves.
Editor's note: spoilers below for Game of Thrones' sixth season and the novels it's based on.
The ninth episode, due to air on June 19, is titled "Battle of the Bastards" and will run for 60 minutes - which is 8-10 minutes longer on average. The show has been building towards a battle for Winterfell since the moment Jon Snow came back from the dead at the start of episode three this season.
Fair to say, it's going to be one of the biggest battles in Game of Thrones' history. And with Sansa reportedly writing to Littlefinger for troop support at the end of last episode, you can expect the Vale's forces to join as well at some point - towards the end presumably, given the show's sense of flair.
The penultimate episode of any Game of Thrones season is also usually the show's most explosive, so the extension in running time seems justified. Oddly though, the finale episode - scheduled for June 26 - is even longer at 69 minutes, which makes it the longest episode in the show's history. That record was previously held by the season four finale "The Children", with a running length of 66 minutes.
The season six finale, meanwhile, is called "The Winds of Winter" - a reference to the as-yet unreleased sixth book by George R.R. Martin. While the show has progressed beyond the book pages in most aspects, it has yet to signal the coming of winter in King's Landing that happened at the end of the fifth book.
Both the ninth and tenth episode will be directed by Miguel Sapochnik, who handled the seventh and eight episode last season, including "Hardhome".
Before that though, airs the sixth season's eighth episode this Sunday. Aptly titled "No One", it will no doubt focus on a bleeding Arya after that cliffhanger in the previous episode. You can check out the trailer below to get a glimpse at the various stages.
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