It’s the news all you Game of Thrones fans have been dreaded. Yes, as previously speculated, the next (and final!) season of this genre juggernaut won’t be landing on our screens until 2019.

Initially, the plan was for this final six-episode season to follow the pattern of its predecessors in airing a year after the previous season – this year’s seventh season – but then rumblings came out that had Season 8 instead pegged for a 2019 airing rather than premiering in 2018.

The confirmation of the 2019 return for the show comes from Sansa Stark herself, Sophie Turner. Speaking to Variety, Turner revealed that, yes, Game of Thrones won’t be back until 2019. This doesn’t come as any particular shock, but it just means many fans will spend the entirety of next year pining for a Thrones fix. Still, that at least gives us all a chance to go back and revisit this iconic series in full if you so wish.

While the eighth and final season is only made up of six episodes, the good news is that each outing is a giant-sized one, with it previously said that the shortest of these new episodes will clock in at 80 minutes.