Buckle up folks, because this is going to be a doozy. Today The Hollywood Reporter dropped a massive new interview with A Song of Ice and Fire author George R.R. Martin, which is one of the most candid and far-ranging interviews Martin has done in ages. From a frank discussion about the future of The Winds of Winter, to the new spinoff A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms and more, Martin really opened up. But the thing that made my jaw drop most was when the conversation turned to the other Game of Thrones spinoff, House of the Dragon...and Martin revealed just how sour his relationship with the series has become.
It's no secret that Martin had a falling out with the creative team of House of the Dragon; in fact, it might be one of the most public clashes between an author and the showrunner of an adaptation to ever happen. In September 2024, Martin published a blog post detailing his issues with some of the changes House of the Dragon was making from his source material. HBO immediately launched into damage control mode, the post was taken down, and since then it's become the stuff of legend in the fandom.
Back when I interviewed Martin at Glasgow WorldCon a few weeks before that blog post, we made a conscious choice to steer clear of House of the Dragon and stick to his love of fandom; I had no idea why at the time, but in hindsight it's obvious. However, in this new interview, THR's James Hibberd — who has been covering Westeros just about longer than anyone in entertainment journalism — broached the topic so many fans have been curious about: how did things get so "rocky" between Martin and House of the Dragon showrunner Ryan Condal?
“It’s worse than rocky,” Martin replied. “It’s abysmal.” Hibberd notes that Martin looked "miserable" when the topic turned to House of the Dragon, and it's no surprise, given everything else that came out.
“I hired Ryan,” Martin continued. “I thought Ryan and I were partners. And we were all through the first season. I would read early drafts of the scripts. I would give notes. He would change some things. It was working really well — I thought.”
Things got more complicated after House of the Dragon's acclaimed first season. According to THR, Condal got into a dispute with his co-showrunner Miguel Sapochnik, who helped get the show off the ground and was the director of some of the most iconic episodes of Game of Thrones, including "Hardhome," "Battle of the Bastards," "The Winds of Winter," and "The Long Night." Condal came to Martin for support, and Martin gave it. Sapochnik subsequently stepped down from the series.
Miguel Sapochnik left House of the Dragon over a dispute with Ryan Condal
So far as I'm aware, the fact that Condal and Sapochnik had a falling out is new information. Given that Martin already had a relationship with Sapochnik from Thrones, I'm beyond curious about the nature of this dispute. (Rumors at the time claimed it had to do with Sapochnik trying to net his wife, House of the Dragon actress Alexis Raben, who played Alicent's handmaid Tayla, a producer credit on the series.)
Yet despite Martin backing Condal after season 1, things took a turn for the worst. “Then we got into season two, and he basically stopped listening to me,” Martin said. “I would give notes, and nothing would happen. Sometimes he would explain why he wasn’t doing it. Other times, he would tell me, ‘Oh, OK, yeah, I’ll think about that.’ It got worse and worse, and I began to get more and more annoyed. Finally, it got to a point where I was told by HBO that I should submit all my notes to them and they would give Ryan our combined notes.”
Condal ignoring Martin's notes eventually led to the infamous blog post in late 2023, titled "Beware the Butterflies," where got into all the details of why the show cutting King Aegon and Queen Helaena's son, Maelor "the missing" Targaryen, was an awful idea, and how it would change things for the worse in season 3. Again, THR reveals some new information, writing that on the morning of the blog post, "An upset HBO exec had called Martin’s manager, who phoned Martin’s assistant, who took down the post — but not before entertainment sites (includingTHR) picked up Martin’s comments."
Of course, we also reported heavily on Martin's post. Once it's on the internet, it's there for good, and how could we not talk about it?
Despite the quick decision to pull the post down, Martin actually remains adamant that he would have prefered to leave it there for the world to read. “I would’ve put it back up, but then I would’ve looked like an idiot,” he said. “And 80 percent of it was praise, but that’s not what people focused on.”
And here's another kicker: that was only the first post in a series of six that would go into Martin's problems with House of the Dragon. Obviously, we'll likely never see the rest of them, but it gives an idea of just how deep the issues ran that he was planning to go so in-depth.
At this point in the conversation with Hibberd, Martin insists that he can't say any more on the topic of House of the Dragon and his relationship with Condal. But there's one more bombshell related to the show we have to discuss.
Let's take a breath, grab some more coffee, and talk more about that in a moment as we process Martin's own words on the matter before we dive into that particular viper's nest.