George RR Martin Worried About ‘Game of Thrones’ Direction After Season 5
- Oops!Something went wrong.Please try again later.
Game of Thrones' author George RR Martin apparently worried about the direction of the series after season 5 and even lobbied for the show to run longer than its eight seasons, according to a new book.
The hit HBO drama finished its run back in 2019–though its final season proved incredibly divisive, with a lot of criticism aimed at aspects such as Daenerys Targaryen's character arc and the shortened length.
In new book Tinderbox: HBO's Ruthless Pursuit of New Frontiers (via Insider), writer James Andrew Miller spoke to Martin's agent Paul Haas, among others.
Haas claimed that the author had concerns about the show from season 5–the point where it started to diverge from the source material, with some based on Martin's still-unpublished sixth book in the series, The Winds of Winter.
"George loves [showrunners David Benioff and DB Weiss], but after season five, he did start to worry about the path they were going because George knows where the story goes," he said. "He started saying, 'You're not following my template.'"
Haas also claimed that Martin pleaded with HBO's former CEO Richard Plepler to make the show 10 seasons long, as it would have made for a more "satisfying experience".
"George would fly to New York to have lunch with Plepler, to beg him to do ten seasons of ten episodes because there was enough material for it and to tell him it would be a more satisfying and more entertaining experience," he added.
However, Haas said that the showrunners "were tired, rightfully so," and wanted to end it at eight.
"They were done and wanted to move on, so they cut it short and then negotiations became, how many seasons can we stretch this out? Because of course, HBO wanted more."
Miller also spoke to Martin himself for the book, with the latter admitting: "I wish it had run for ten years. I think that would've given us a little more time in the later seasons to end it. But that might be just because I'm still trying to end it in these books here.
"I'm working on The Winds of Winter even now as I have been for the best part of a decade. And hopefully, I'm going to get to that end soon and then people can argue about which ending they like better."
Earlier this year, Martin confirmed that his A Song of Ice and Fire book series will take a 'different direction' in its ending from the TV series.
You Might Also Like
