George R.R. Martin is perhaps the most talented fantasy writer of our time. Adapting his work, you’d think you want him behind you every step of the way. It would seem the showrunners behind Game Of Thrones, adapted from his famous work, didn’t quite feel the same way.
Maybe that’s part of the reason the show seemed to struggle during its final season. For a long time, people had incredibly high hopes for the series. They thought it could stand among the greats. Instead, the expectations of fans were largely dashed episode after episode in the final season, leading to what many consider a very underwhelming finale.
In a recent interview, George R.R. Martin explained that he had less and less input as the Game of Thrones TV show went on. The next book in the series, The Winds Of Winter, is notoriously unfinished even as of now. It would make sense that once the show passed the events in the published books, writing the series would get much harder. But to leave Martin out of the process really makes no sense. Even if he hadn’t written everything out in prose form, he easily could have provided his notes thus far or even outlined the major story beats for the rest of the series. Instead, they were left to their own devices.
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George R.R. Martin spoke about how the gradual cut from the writers room happened in a recent interview with The New York Times. He said: “By season 5 and 6, and certainly 7 and 8, I was pretty much out of the loop.” He has no clue exactly how or why David Benioff and D.B. Weiss stopped including him in the discussion, just that it happened. The fact that it happened so early on may come as a shock to fans of the franchise though.
Luckily, there are two upcoming series related to Game Of Thrones coming up, which means perhaps the TV franchise can still redeem itself. First off is a prequel series called House Of the Dragon, which follows House Targaryen before the rise of Daenerys. There’s also an as-of-yet unnamed Jon Snow spinoff on the way.
HBO’s House Of the Dragon is set to premiere on August 21, 2022.
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