HBO swears it won’t cancel Game of Thrones, that Game of Thrones will not see a similar fate to Deadwood, and that they are “very aware of and respectful of” the relationship fans have to the series. “We told George [R.R. Martin] we’d go as long as he kept writing,” HBO co-president Richard Pleper said at a TCA panel yesterday. “I can promise you that we won’t stop it before it’s ready to stop,” agreed Michael Lombardo, HBO’s programming president. The execs said that Thrones will stick with ten episodes per season (“there is no way they could physically do more than 10,” Lombardo says), but that subsequent seasons didn’t necessarily have to cover an entire book, which could make adapting, say, the later books a bit easier. It’s not hugely shocking that HBO would vow to stand by its new hit show, but GoT’s television fate isn’t completely clear cut: “I don’t know where the show ends as opposed to the books,” Lombardo admits, and for a show that’s been so faithful to its source material, that could be an issue come season six or so. [HitFix]