The Game of Thrones finale is on extreme lockdown

The next season of Game of Thrones will be the series' last. We've known this for a while, of course, but now that season 7 is over and the stage is set, it all feels a bit more real, doesn't it? Unfortunately, HBO's track record with leaks is not the greatest, and as a result, some Game of Thrones fans might be worried that the ending to the series will be spoiled for them before they get a chance to watch it.

Such a concern is justified, of course. Earlier this year, Game of Thrones suffered a couple of different leaks, with HBO itself to blame for one of them. The leaked episodes contained a variety of different twists, making the internet a minefield for those who wanted to wait and watch them as they aired.

Some good news, then, is that HBO is going to great lengths to make sure the ending to the series can't be spoiled. According to The Morning Caller, HBO will film multiple endings for the series, slotting the real one in just before it premieres. This makes it a lot more difficult for leakers to spoil the ending ahead of its air date, as not even the actors in the show will know what the real ending is until the final episode airs.

"I know in 'Game of Thrones,' the ending, they're going to shoot multiple versions so that nobody really know what happens," HBO director of programming Casey Bloys said at Moravian College in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Game of Thrones won't be the first show to employ such a tactic – many other high-profile TV series have done the same thing in the past in an attempt to throw leakers off the scent.

Sadly, we're going to have to wait quite some time to find out what that true ending is. The final season of Game of Thrones isn't scheduled to begin filming until next month, and filming could last until late 2018, potentially pushing a premiere date back into 2019. HBO still hasn't announced a premiere date for Game of Thrones season 8, but we'll let you know when it does.