Maisie Williams denies leaking the Game of Thrones season eight air date

But sadly, it's turned out to be a case of fake news as the Ayra Stark star has now confirmed that her quotes about the air date were taken from an old interview and have nothing to do with season eight after all.

Williams had been quoted as saying: "We wrap in December and we air our first episode in April [2019]. That's a four-month turnaround for these huge episodes.

"There's a lot that goes into the final edit. You would not want to rush this season at all. We owe it to our audience and our fans to really do this final season to the best of our abilities."

And while all of that might be true, it doesn't have anything to do with season eight which is still due to air in 2019 – the biggest gap between episodes we’ve seen since the HBO drama began in 2011.

The final season will be directed by David Benioff, DB Weiss, David Nutter and Miguel Sapochnik and executive-produced by Thrones veterans including author George RR Martin.

HBO president of programming Casey Bloys has also revealed that multiple endings will be filmed to prevent spoilers from leaking ahead of the finale.

Game of Thrones returns for season 8 in 2019