For those eagerly anticipating the real fate of poor Jon Snow, today brings word of just when you can expect Game of Thrones to return to the small screen. Not only that, there’s some welcome news on the future of the show going forward.

Firstly, Game of Thrones’ Season 6 will premiere in the US on Sunday, April 24th, with a UK showing following shortly after. In addition to this, HBO is close to striking a deal to renew the show for a seventh and eighth season.

The news of two further seasons comes fresh from last night’s TCA press tour, as reported by EW, in which HBO’s Michael Lombardo revealed that the network is in advanced talks to extend the show past this upcoming sixth season. In an interesting note, last year saw Lombardo tease that the network had plans to cap the show at eight seasons, so it could very well be that Thrones only has a few more years left on our screens.

At present, the current key cast members of the series are only optioned-in for seven seasons, meaning that some negotiations will have to take place in order to see Game of Thrones through to a Season 8.