On the Dan and David side of things, they told me that theyre not going to be involved in the prequels and instead are going to work on the final season for the next year and a half. Is that right?
Yep. Im glad you asked that because that is one thing I want to clarify: By the time the final season airs, Dan and David will have been at this for 12 years. Which is an amazing fact. They didnt go and do movies in between seasons, they didnt set anything else up, they put everything and are putting everything into this show. They came into HBO with an idea for a show with a beginning, middle, and end, and they want to see it through. In conversations with them, they feel if their name is on the prequels even in a passive way it conveys some sort of expectation or responsibility. They want to enjoy the show as fans and dont want to worry about the scripts or production issues. We were hoping to have their names on it out of respect for them, but we understand why they dont want that.
So as of now, the final season could air in 2018 and/or in 2019 depending on their needs?
Yeah. They have to write the episodes and figure out the production schedule. Well have a better sense of that once they get further into the writing.