James Hibberd talks ‘Fire Cannot Kill a Dragon,’ season 8 criticism and more

Game of Thrones reporter James Hibberd tells us about his new book, his biggest surprises, and why some of the criticism leveled at the showrunners is unfair.

For almost the whole of the run of Game of Thrones, Entertainment Weekly’s James Hibberd enjoyed one-of-a-kind access to the sets, cast and crew. He learned a lot over the years, and now he’s brought it all together with his new book, Fire Cannot Kill A Dragon:  Game of Thrones and the Official Untold Story of the Epic Series.

In an exclusive interview, Hibberd told us where the idea for the book came from:

"I’ve never been an “I want to write books instead” reporter. I tend to stay focused on my job, which keeps me plenty busy. Then a literary agent pitched me the idea of a Thrones oral history while the final season was airing and I was intrigued. I had spent more than a decade covering this incredible show, but every story reflected just a tiny piece of it. There was nothing that captured the whole thing. Plus it was an opportunity to really go back and fill in some of the early seasons, which my previous reporting was lean on — How did this all get started? What were the early meetings like? What was shooting the original pilot, and the first season and the first battle like? Plus I wanted to hit some sensitive subjects that were easier to get people to open up about after the show was over (like, say, the Dorne storyline)."

But while the book wasn’t always the plan, but covering the show was. Hibberd said that Game of Thrones was part of the reason he got the job at EW to begin with. “I was lucky to get hired by EW in early 2011 and I said in my job interview that I wanted to cover Game of Thrones in the same immersive way that EW’s Dalton Ross covered Survivor (and as he still does!).”

After that, Hibberd went to work right away. “My first set visit was in season 2. I think my continued access was partly the result of EW supporting reporters doing set visits and partly because I gained the producers’ trust by reporting things accurately and did not reveal spoilers. I personally don’t like to know spoilers, so I avoid them in my coverage. I’m far more interested in the creative process and, in this case, the drama of making a supposedly ‘impossible’ show.”

After establishing that foundation, Hibberd became the most recognizable reporter covering the biggest show in the world. Still, interviewing everyone after the show was over proved tricky:

"The new interviews were all after the final season ended, which was a challenge as many people were ready to move on and were exhausted from making the show and from talking about it. Some interviews were in person (like GRRM, the showrunners, Emilia Clarke), many were over the phone and a couple were by email. The book also uses some of my previously published quotes, because I hit many of the major topics already over the years. I was surprised how many old quotes even I had forgotten about and apparently others had too — some media outlets are now reporting old quotes in the book as new information."

Someone shame us if we do that.

Image: Game of Thrones/HBO

Of course, even the guards at Fort Knox don’t have access to every room, so we asked Hibberd if there were any places on the Game of Thrones set he wasn’t allowed, even with his unparalleled access. “I wasn’t allowed on any ‘closed set’ shoots, such as when there was nudity, as the producers only let essential crew members on for those to protect the actors. That said, I did cover The Walk of Shame, but I guess they figured hundreds of extras were going to be watching that anyway.”

Restrictions notwithstanding, Hibberd learned a lot that he couldn’t talk about, and holding his tongue was never more difficult than after he learned about season 8’s biggest twist; Jon Snow killing Daenerys.

"The biggest surprise by far was learning on the set of season 8 that Jon Snow kills Daenerys. It caused me to spontaneously go for a walk in the Northern Ireland woods by myself as my brain spun and spun — much like many of the cast members went for walks after reading the season 8 scripts. Even typing it now feels somehow wrong because I spent a year with that spoiler ping-ponging around my brain and guarding myself against letting it slip out."

Credit to Hibberd: I would have told every person I know. Or met on the street.

By this point, though, Hibberd was very familiar with the way the show operated. He spotted its potential early on. “I realized it when reading the first book that it had the potential to become the phenomenon it became, I just didn’t think anybody could really make it happen,” he said. “So I figured it would either be a hugely popular TV game-changer or an over-reaching train wreck, but either way this show would be a story worth covering. That’s what I’m hearing a lot from readers of the book, that they forgot how insane the very idea seemed to people at the time, how unlikely it was to work, and how difficult it was in those early years to get it off the ground.”

Circling back to season 8, we asked Hibberd how he felt about the heavy criticism the show received during its final run of episodes. “There are a million opinions and I actually think, if anything, my critical opinion of it is worth less than a typical fan because I knew all the spoilers and had to work while the episode aired on my recap, so it was a rather suboptimal viewing experience.”

"But I do think that whether you think the final season was fantastic or awful, the story of the making of the final season is fascinating. It was probably the most ambitious season of television ever produced. So the book spends six chapters on season 8. There’s a chapter about going behind the scenes of the showrunners’ decision to end the show when they did, another on the cast reactions to the scripts, another on “The Long Night” filming, another on specifically Dany’s fate, another on the ending arcs of all the other characters, and a final chapter on the fan reaction and reactions to that. The idea is that by the time you finish the book, regardless of how you felt about the final season, you understand why key decisions were made and have a real feel for what it was like for the people making the show."

Basically, if you ever wanted to be a fly on the wall during the production of season 8, now’s your chance.

“You asked if I thought anything was unfair,” Hibberd continued, addressing the fan backlash to the final season. “There’s an assumption that [showrunners David Benioff and Dan Weiss] deliberately did something to hurt their show. Nobody who worked with them thinks that; they wanted fans to love the final season and spent a lot of years planning it out. I think it’s obviously fair game to disagree with decisions made, but I think you can do that without assuming somebody is a horrible person with bad intentions.”

NEW YORK, NY – APRIL 03: David Benioff and D.B. Weiss attend the Season 8 premiere of “Game of Thrones” at Radio City Music Hall on April 3, 2019 in New York City. (Photo by Taylor Hill/Getty Images)

So now that Game of Thrones is in the rearview however, will we ever see its like again? “As long as some major players are releasing episodes week by week (instead of seasons all at once, like Netflix), I think there’s a good chance something will eventually come along,” Hibberd said.

And could that show be HBO’s upcoming Game of Thrones prequel, House of the Dragon? “I plan to cover it. I’m excited to see what Miguel Sapochnik does because he’s a visionary director and a workaholic beast and he’s now in the showrunner driver’s seat along with Ryan Condal. But right now the idea of visiting any set seems like such a far-fetched idea, and they only have one actor cast in the show, so it all feels pretty far off at moment.”

We thank Mr. Hibberd for the time! Look for our review of Fire Cannot Kill A Dragon, available now wherever and however books are sold, soon.

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