Why George R.R. Martin Rejected A Cameo In HBO's Game Of Thrones

In 2019, George R.R. Martin watched, along with the rest of the world, as "Game of Thrones" ended not with a bang but with a whimper. According to the author, who penned the source material "A Song of Ice and Fire," he could have physically appeared in the final season if he'd wanted to ... but he declined the offer when it came from showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss.

"David and Dan invited me to a cameo in one of the final episodes, which I was tempted to do," Martin told Entertainment Weekly back in February of 2019, before the series finally concluded. "But I didn't think just for the sake of a cameo I could take the time to return to Belfast." Martin lives in New Mexico full time, and to be fair to the author, that's a really long trek to make just for a short appearance. There's also the fact that the last season of "Game of Thrones" really, really stunk, but it's possible that Martin didn't know that just yet; season 8 didn't actually conclude until May of that year, at which point fans went absolutely wild over the fact that they hated the finale (to the point where they actually penned a petition asking for HBO to do it again, but better).

As it turns out, George R.R. Martin did appear on-screen in "Game of Thrones" — kind of. He just never actually made it to air. In that same chat with Entertainment Weekly — where Martin spoke with James Hibberd, who would go on to author the oral history "Fire Cannot Kill a Dragon" about the making of the entire series — Martin revealed to Hibberd that he filmed a cameo for the first pilot that David Benioff and D.B. Weiss produced for HBO.

"There was a cameo in the original pilot that was cut," Martin recalled. "I was a guest at [Daenerys Targaryen's] wedding. But that was when she was played by Tamzin Merchant so all that footage got thrown out when we recast with Emilia Clarke." Hardcore "Game of Thrones" fans know that, before the real pilot was made, Benioff and Weiss' first attempt went disastrously wrong. Nobody could figure out why it was so taboo to see Cersei Lannister (Lena Headey) and Jaime Lannister (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) in flagrante, because nobody watching realized that they were related (they're twins, point in fact). Merchant, as Martin mentioned, also wasn't the right fit for Daenerys and was later replaced by Emilia Clarke; Jennifer Ehle, the original Catelyn Stark, faced the same fate (with Michelle Fairley assuming the role for the actual show). In addition, a young horse present during Daenerys and Drogo's "first" wedding got ... a little too excited (something Martin may have witnessed during filming, though he didn't specifically mention that whole ordeal). It was a disaster, all in all, so it makes sense that Martin's cameo ended up on the cutting room floor permanently.

"Game of Thrones" has been over for quite some time now, but George R.R. Martin is still involved in on-screen adaptations set in his fictional world of Westeros — and is apparently not sitting down to write the long-awaited sixth book in "A Song of Ice and Fire," titled "The Winds of Winter" — and he recently weighed in on the series' first big spin-off and his misgivings about some matters. After season 2 of "House of the Dragon," the "Game of Thrones" prequel series that chronicles the Targaryen civil war known as the Dance of the Dragons decades before the original show begins, Martin took to his blog Not a Blog in a (now-deleted) post to bemoan some of the changes made by showrunner Ryan Condal. (In the process, he also managed to spoil a major season 3 development, which is perhaps why the blog post was swiftly deleted.) Even before that post, however, Martin was quite vocal about changes to the House Targaryen sigils and the dragons themselves on "House of the Dragon," so it's safe to say that he has plenty of thoughts about the adaptation of "Fire & Blood" (the historical "record" of the Targaryen conflict).

Bearing in mind how much Martin has to say about "House of the Dragon" — and the fact that a lot of it is critical — it feels like maybe he won't get asked to appear in any small cameos going forward. It's still possible, though; third time's the charm!

"Game of Thrones" and "House of the Dragon" are both streaming on Max now.