George R.R. Martin wanted Game of Thrones to run for “10 seasons at least”
By Dan Selcke
We’re three years out from the end of Game of Thrones and even enjoying a new spinoff in House of the Dragon, but debates about the ending to the original series still linger. Why were so many people unhappy with the final season? Did showrunners David Benioff and Dan Weiss wrap things up too quickly? Would more episodes or even more seasons have helped?
Mileage varies widely depending on who you ask, but there’s one person who definitely wanted more: A Song of Ice and Fire author George R.R. Martin. “I was saying it needs to be 10 seasons at least and maybe 12, 13,” he recently told The Wall Street Journal. “I lost that one.”
Knowing Martin’s tendency towards maximalism, I’m not surprised at all that he wanted as many seasons as possible to adapt every detail of his enormous books. Personally, while I think Game of Thrones could have benefitted from more episodes — maybe even an extra season — I think having as many as Martin wanted is well over the line, in part because of bloat (a problem in Martin’s books) and in part because it would be impracticable given how quickly some of the cast members were aging. But again, mileage will vary.
George R.R. Martin has “more influence” over House of the Dragon than Game of Thrones
As for the new show, Martin is more involved here at the beginning than he was at the end of Game of Thrones. “I had no contribution to the later seasons except, you know, inventing the world, the story and all the characters,” he said. “I believe I have more influence now [on ‘House of the Dragon’] than I did on the original show.”
Then again, Martin was pretty involved in the early seasons of Game of Thrones, too. It’s possible his involvement with House of the Dragon could taper off as time goes on. But then again again, House of the Dragon likely won’t run nearly as long as Game of Thrones did, so there will be less time for Martin and the show to go in different directions.
We can see how this all plays out in real time as new episodes of House of the Dragon drop Sundays on HBO and HBO Max!
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h/t Variety