Game of Thrones to end with short run

Game of Thrones has just 13 episodes remaining

US premium cablenet HBO has confirmed that the eighth and final season of its fantasy drama Game of Thrones (GoT) will comprise just six episodes.

The forthcoming seventh season of GoT has seven episodes instead of the usual 10 and has been slated to premiere on HBO in the US July.

The cablenet said a trailer released earlier this week had been watched more than 60 million times on YouTube within its first 24 hours online.

GoT is based on the books by George RR Martin and was created by David Benioff and DB Weiss. Proposed spin-offs are in the works, although they will not feature any characters from the current show and all will be prequels.