Entertainment Weekly reports that David Benioff and D.B. Weiss have made a deal to remain as showrunners through Game Of Thrones’ presumed sixth season—a year that, if they follow George R.R. Martin’s plan, they will just be finishing up with A Feast For Crows, he will have long since delivered The Winds Of Winter, and life will be fine, just fine. There are still a few uncertainties about that scenario, such as what sort of lemonade Martin will enjoy after publishing his novel, which he will definitely have done by then. Possibly pink, the flavor of accomplishment.


But then there’s also the fact that HBO hasn’t officially renewed Game Of Thrones for even a fifth, let alone a sixth season yet, an announcement it typically reserves until the week after each season premieres, to keep its more excitable fans in hysterical suspense. And with Benioff and Weiss locked in—and the fact that those two have already been given a broad outline of how the story will end, and getting rid of them just as they gain that sort of important information is something only a sadist would do—a renewal is obviously just a formality, like Martin actually putting words to paper.