"I'm looking forward to finishing."

Game of Thrones' Kit Harington has told how he feels it's the right time for the television series to come to an end. The eighth and final season of the HBO hit series has begun production in recent days, and filming is expected to last until next summer. The 30-year-old actor, who plays Jon Snow in the fantasy series, said it's the right time for him - and everyone else - to take a step back from the world of Westeros. And while we would happily take the chance to have plenty more episodes filled with epic battles and dragons, we kind of get his point. He told Digital Spy:

"[Game of] Thrones is coming to the end at the right time for me, and everyone involved in it. "I was exchanging emails with David [Benioff] Dan [Weiss] last night and we were all getting very soppy and emotional with each other. "It will be liberating, just the thought of having a whole year free - you shoot for six months, but half of the projects you might want to do will have started shooting before that six months is over. "There's a lot of things you can't do. I'm looking forward to finishing, and eight years is the right amount of time."

The actor hinted that he may take on more of a producer role after appearing in the BBC One's latest drama Gunpowder.  He explained:

"Game of Thrones is coming to a very quick end, which I'm feeling emotional about. I've learned working with the Thrones producers what the job involves..

"I found the producing side of Gunpowder fascinating, I would like to do more of it.

"I've found it's opened up a different side of my creative brain, which I've really enjoyed."

The HBO drama recently began production on it's eighth and final series, and the six-episode season is speculated to be airing in 2019. Harington's Game of Thrones co-star Liam Cunningham recently explained that due to the epic filming schedule, fans could be waiting for a little while before they see more of Westeros on screen. He told TV Guide:

"[The episodes are] definitely going to be bigger and what I hear is longer. "We're filming right up until the summer. "When you think about it, up until last season we'd have six months to do ten episodes, so we're [doing] way more than that for six episodes. "So that obviously will translate into longer episodes."