HBO Ignored The George R.R. Martin Advice That Could Have Saved Game Of Thrones

You could write a book about all the hatred the final season of "Game of Thrones" received, and it would still come out sooner than George R.R. Martin's "The Winds of Winter." Even Littlefinger actor Aidan Gillen had some unpopular opinions about how things wrapped up in the closing chapter, and Gwendoline Christie believed that season 8 was "designed to break" the cast.

It didn't have to be that way, though. In fact, the creator of the Seven Kingdoms himself revealed that requests were made to HBO to stretch "Game of Thrones" beyond its eighth season, which ended with only six episodes instead of the typical 10. Speaking to The Wall Street Journal about past negotiations that didn't go as planned, Martin recalled, "I was saying it needs to be 10 seasons at least and maybe 12, 13. I lost that one."

The responsibility of condensing the story was instead left to showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, who chose the route the show ultimately took, only for it to be torn apart by fans and critics alike. The swift decline of Daenerys Targaryen (Emilia Clarke) and the decision to make Bran the Broken (Isaac Hempstead Wright) King of the Seven Kingdoms, while heavily criticized, might not have drawn such backlash if a little more time had been taken to properly conclude their and other character's endings. By that point, though, Martin had already parted ways with the live-action adaptation of his works and was returning to the literary version he had yet to complete.

Following the misstep that was the closing stab at "Game of Thrones," George R.R. Martin appears to have gained more control over how stories in his universe, past and present, played out going forward. This was made abundantly clear to the author during the creation of "House of the Dragon," the show that was set 200 years before the events of "Game of Thrones." "I had no contribution to the later seasons except, you know, inventing the world, the story, and all the characters," Martin explained in 2022. "I believe I have more influence now than I did on the original show."

Even after fans might've felt stung by how things played out seeing Jon Snow (Kit Harington) head back to beyond the Wall and all royal proceedings being handled by the most chill dude in all of Westeros, it was clear that there'd always be an audience for this world when the season 1 finale of "House of the Dragon" was the most viewed closer since the series finale of "Game of Thrones." While the show as a whole might still struggle to compete with the numbers of its predecessor, HBO still has other stories scheduled to be told, including "A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms," which is set for release later this year before we get the third and fourth season of "House of the Dragon." Something's got to tide us over while we wait for a book we'll never get, right?