The BBC refutes Game of Thrones comparisons, while Booker Prize-winning author embraces them

We’ve written before about how historical drama The Last Kingdom bears a few similarities to Game of Thrones. This doesn’t mean that the BBC America series, which is about the Viking invasion of England during the ninth century, doesn’t stand on its own as a show, but the focus on warring clans in a medieval setting has inspired more than one critic to compare and contrast it with HBO’s hit, sometimes to the consternation of producers. (“We have no dragons,” BBC America executive Gareth Neame said to reporters before the show debuted.)

The Last Kingdom recently wrapped up a well-received first season and will return for a second.* In the meantime, the comparisons have kept coming, and Alexander Dreymon, who plays protagonist Uhtred, is getting a little tired of it. Here’s what he said to The Irish Examiner:

"I think we should be honoured to be compared to Game Of Thrones because it’s a great show, it’s the number one show in the world at the moment. So it’s brilliant to be compared to it. However it’s so different, and I think in time hopefully that comparison will fade away and we’ll be our own entity, our own thing."

Alexandre Dreymon in The Last Kingdom. Photo: The Irish Examiner.

The Last Kingdom is based on The Saxon Stories, a series of books by author Bernard Cornwell. The Saxon Stories have only been coming out since 2004, but Cornwell has been writing historical fiction set in Europe since long before George R.R. Martin published A Game of Thrones. In that way, I can see how it could be irritating for producers to have The Last Kingdom constantly measured against Game of Thrones. On the other hand, I find it hard to believe that the BBC would have adapted The Saxon Stories for television had it not been for Thrones’ success, so the show may have to live with the comparisons for a while.

Not everybody is running from Game of Thrones comparisons. According to a recent interview with Man of the World magazine, Jamaican author Marlon James (who won the 2015 Man Booker Prize for his novel A Brief History of Seven Killings) intends to write “an African Game of Thrones.” He elaborated:

"I realized how sick and tired I was of arguing about whether there should be a black hobbit in Lord of the Rings. African folklore is just as rich, and just as perverse as that shit. We have witches, we have demons, we have goblins, and mad kings. We have stories of royal succession that would put Wolf Hall to shame. We beat the Tudors two times over."

In fact, James seems okay with any number of comparisons. I suppose when a touchstone like Game of Thrones exists, you’re bound to acknowledge it one way or another, whether that’s by running from it or embracing it.

*Just FYI: FX’s The Bastard Executioner, another show that was heavily compared to Game of Thrones, was cancelled after one season. To be fair, it was much more poorly received than The Last Kingdom.

h/t Vulture