It’s undeniable that Game of Thrones is one of HBO’s greatest successes, both critically and ratings wise. But all great things must come to an end eventually, so of course it’s getting to the point where fans will start to worry when it will be decided to end the show.

Worry no more. At least not for a little bit anyway. It has been announced that HBO has given the greenlight for not only season five of the hit series based on George R.R. Martin‘s “A Song of Ice and Fire” book series, but also a season six!

The decision comes on the heels of the premiere of season four this past Sunday, which became the most watched episode of the series so far and the most watched episode of any HBO series since the finale of The Sopranos back in 2007.

The news shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise not only because of the success of the show, but also because showrunners D.B. Weiss and David Benioff recently signed a two year extension with HBO before the seasons were “official”

Still, usually when it comes to TV it’s one season at a time to make sure there’s no nosedives in numbers. It’s nice to see HBO has so much confidence in the show they’re willing to lock in two more seasons, ensuring we the fans of 29 new episodes from this point on through the spring of 2016 if they continue at the rate they’re going.

The current season of Game of Thrones is the second half of the two-season coverage of book three in the series, A Storm of Swords. After that, there’s two more books already published and two more on the way from Martin. There has been concern over the speed at which the series is moving—even only at a 10-episode per year rate—and whether they would catch up before Martin finished the last books.

It will be interesting to see if it’s decided to split one or more of the remaining books into multiple seasons again to extend time or if the show will ultimately end before the final book is published.

I say go all out. Shows like this don’t come along very often and fans deserve to see the story told in full, which, at the moment, appears to be the path being traveled.

[Source: HBO]