Rejoice Game of Thrones fans! While the wait for the new season of HBO’s hit show may seem like an eternity, today’s news may make the wait a little easier.

David Benioff and Dan Weiss, who write and produce the show, have revealed that episodes for Season 3 will run around 5-6 minutes longer with most being around 56-57 minutes long.

Weiss praised HBO for giving them the time,

“There’s almost another full episode’s worth of extra minutes spread across the season. One of the great liberties with HBO is we’re not forced to come in at a specific time. We can’t be under 50 minutes or over 60, but that gives us a lot of flexibility.”

They have also petitioned the network to have the Season 3 finale run well over an hour. I for one am all for this because as anyone that has read A Storm of Swords will tell you this should be the season when the stuff really hits the fan and they need all the extra time they can get to show it.

Game of Thrones returns to HBO on March 31, 2013.