This Is When George R.R. Martin Got Concerned About The Game Of Thrones TV Series
In the new era of streaming television, "Game of Thrones" quickly became a hit show when it premiered in 2011. The popular series ran for eight seasons as viewers watched favorite characters be devastated by the many plots twists, from the Red Wedding to Jon Snow (Kit Harington) getting stabbed in the heart. With a sizable audience acquired, "Game of Thrones" made record-breaking numbers in viewership through the series finale in 2019 (via Deadline). Despite viewers clamoring to see how everything would resolve in the end, the series finale was a resounding disaster. "The fanbase that fell in love with Martin's books beginning in 1996...deserved better," Collider noted in a retrospective a year after the show ended. There was a "Game of Thrones" ending fans really wanted, and what they got wasn't it. And so, a golden run seemed tarnished in the closing episodes.
Another person inclined to agree with the "Game of Thrones" backlash is George R.R. Martin, the author of the fantasy novels on which the show is based. Martin has not been historically quick to finish the book series, meaning the show eventually veered away from its source material. (The latest novel, "A Dance With Dragons," was released in 2011, right before the HBO show premiered, per Entertainment Weekly). With that in mind, Martin was present to give showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss hints if they were taking "Game of Thrones" in the right direction (via Collider).
This was apparently to no avail, as the author's perspective on the back half of the series and the point when the HBO adaptation started to concern him was recently revealed in a new book.
George R.R. Martin started getting worried after Season 5
The first few seasons of "Game of Thrones" were critically acclaimed. But, following the release of Season 5, it was clear the show was deviating from the books. A representative for Martin, Paul Haas, commented in an upcoming book, "Tinderbox: HBO's Ruthless Pursuit of New Frontiers," which shed light on the issue (via Winter Is Coming).
"George [R.R. Martin] loves Dan [Weiss] and Dave [Benioff], but after Season 5, he did start to worry about the path they were [going down] because George knows where the story goes," Haas stated. "He started saying, 'You're not following my template.' The first five seasons stuck to George's roadmap. Then [Weiss and Benioff] went off George's roadmap."
Fans of the show may not find this statement surprising. This was the season that was coming close to the end of where the books left off. One of the biggest oversights was excluding the character Aegon Targaryen, who would have been Daenerys' biggest rival for the Iron Throne (via Inverse). What is not clear yet is how (or if) the HBO's show's divergence in the "Game of Thrones" story will impact the end of Martin's book series. Hopefully, fans will find out should "The Winds of Winter" ever be released.
For now, viewers will have to be happy when the new HBO show "House of the Dragon" premieres in 2022.