Game of Thrones greenlit for a seventh season

Blockbuster fantasy TV hit Game Of Thrones is to get a seventh season.

Since its debut in 2011, the show has become one of the most popular shows on the planet.

However, as the show has now used up the plots of the George R.R. Martin novels on which it is based on, it was rumored bosses at HBO, the channel on which it airs, would make the sixth season its last.

Now the pay-per-view network have confirmed there will be a seventh Game of Thrones season, although they are yet to announce how many episodes will be in it.

Game of Thrones usually has 10 episodes in a season, but it has been mooted that like another hit show, Mad Men, producers may split an extended final season into two parts.

In an interview with British newspaper The Guardian George R.R. Martin has said that there are “a whole world of stories, waiting to be told” if HBO is interested in continuing the saga of A Game of Thrones beyond the planned seven books.

Speculation around the new season has centered on whether Kit' Harrington's Jon Snow character is alive.

Jon was murdered in the season five finale, but as in the novels, characters have been known to come back from the dead, and fans have been speculating his character could return.

However, Kit insists Jon is very much dead. "Look, I’m not in the show any more. I’m definitely not in the new series... I filmed some scenes of me being dead – it’s some of my best work," he confirmed to Britain's Time Out magazine,

Game of Thrones' sixth season debuts on Sunday (24Apr16).