The final season of "Game of Thrones" will have the fewest number of episodes, but each one may be a mini movie. Little birds have been whispering to that effect. So start praying to the gods, old and new, that it really happens.

"Game of Thrones" Season 7 starts next week on July 16, and those seven episodes will end with an 81 or 82 (depends on where you look) minute finale, the longest episode to date. Season 8 is the final season, and it will only feature six episodes. But sound designed Paula Fairfield gave fans hope about those final episodes, telling the Con of Thrones audience they may all be feature-length, aka 80 minutes or longer, as opposed to the usual 50-60 minutes.

David Chen, who hosted the Spotlight panel at Con of Thrones, tweeted the report:

They haven't even started filming Season 8 yet, and we're not sure whether it will air in 2018 or 2019, so this is a very early preliminary report with an emphasis on "considering."

But still. Six episodes x 85 minutes = 510 minutes = 8.5 hours. The first six seasons all had 10 episodes mostly airing under 60 minutes, so this would be close to a normal-length season, in terms of actual aired footage.

Vanity Fair and Deadline seem encouraged about the news, with Deadline pointing out that feature-length episodes could be similar to what "Sherlock" and "Black Mirror" have done. We'll see. GoT Season 7 premieres Sunday, July 16 at 9 p.m. on HBO.

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