George R.R. Martin is the author behind a Song of Ice and Fire, which HBO adapted as Game of Thrones. He also wrote Fire & Blood, a history of the Targaryen dynasty before the events of Game of Thrones. HBO is adapting part of that book as House of the Dragon; they're gearing up to shoot a new season as we speak. And you get the idea that they won't be taking many suggestions from Martin.
Why? Because last year, after the second season of House of the Dragon had wrapped up, Martin wrote on his blog about his misgivings with how the producers were adapting his book, and warned of "more toxic" changes to the source material being contemplated for future seasons. Martin is an executive producer on the show, so it was pretty extraordinary to see him publicly criticize it like this. Martin eventually took down the blog post and HBO put out a statement trying to smooth everything over; it was pretty wild.
And yet, as someone who really enjoyed Fire & Blood and who watched the second season of House of the Dragon dismayed over how many huge changes the show made, I got where Martin was coming from. And obviously I wasn't nearly as attached to the story and characters as he was, since he originated them. "These are my children, these stories I create," Martin recently told Collider.
At the same time, Martin has a lot of experience in this industry, and he knows that producers are going to change up your source material if you sell it to them. But he thinks they should do it responsibly. He gave what I thought was a measured take on the importance of fidelity in adaptations, drawing on his life experience not only as an author and a Hollywood player but also a fan of science fiction and fantasy:
"I'm a science fiction fan, I grew up reading science fiction, comic books — big comic book fan — and I love these characters, and I love some of these stories. And there weren't many science fiction films that were adaptations being made back in the 50s and the 60s when I was growing up. There were films, but they were original films about giant spiders and other things that someone invented. But you didn't see Robert A. Heinlein stories, you didn't see Isaac Asimov stories, the great writers who made me love science fiction when I grew up. When they finally got around and they started making some of those, it was very hard, because...yeah, it might have had Asimov's name on it, but this wasn't the way Isaac would have written it. It was not at all, and that was not good.
I think when you're adapting, if you respect the original material, you should stay as close to it as possible. And if there's a reason for change — and many times there are reasons for change; a lot of them are budgetary or they're practical concerns of what you can do, what you can't do — make changes for good reasons."
Martin has been in situations where he's loved adaptations of his work and in situation where he's been less pleased. "It's nice when they do involve you, and even more when you have a feeling that they listen and have an understanding of the original material, because many times they don't," he said. He qualified that he wasn't talking about anybody in particular there, "so please don't turn it around to some current project"...but after he publicly criticized House of the Dragon the other year, it's impossible for me to read this and not think of that show.
For whatever reason, the producers on House of the Dragon have decided to largely go their own way with the story. I hope it works out for them. I hope season 3 takes things from the book and things from the producers' own heads and combines them in a way that's even better than what's on the page; Martin notes that this can happen, and that it's wonderful when it does...but after the second season, I'll admit I'm nervous. I'm with Martin: if you need to make changes, and often you do, try and make sure you're making them for good reasons. Otherwise, it's probably best to stick to the text and to listen to the person who wrote it.
The third season of House of the Dragon will likely air on HBO and Max sometime in 2026.
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