In a new interview, George R.R. Martin says he was ‘pretty much out of the loop’ during the final seasons of Game Of Thrones.
Game of Thrones will perhaps remain one of the greatest achievements – and perhaps one of the greatest failures – of modern-day television. What started out as a gripping fantastical tale about power and politics turned into a loophole-riddled, rushed drivel by the end of it all. The final season of the series remains its most contentious arc ever, destroying all character building and rushing through key incidents.
Of course, now we have an idea why. In a new interview with New York Times, George R.R. Martin – who penned the series – claims that post Season 5, he was ‘pretty much out of the loop’. Martin claims that while he was consulted on everything from casting to plot to scripts from Seasons one through four, he was practically ‘estranged’ from the show from Season 5.
“By Season 5 and 6, and certainly 7 and 8, I was pretty much out of the loop,” Martin told the New York Times.
He did not know why, however: “I don’t know — you have to ask Dan [Weiss] and David [Benioff].”
Martin is still working on The Winds Of Winter, the penultimate book in the A Song Of Ice and Fire series upon which the show was based. He has clarified, however, that the novel will go in a very different direction from the show.
“My ending will be very different,” he claimed.
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This isn’t the first time Martin has claimed diverging from the show. In a blog post earlier this year, he compared himself to a gardener, and claimed that the vision for his latest garden – The Winds of Winter – was looking significantly different to the show.
“Things are growing… and changing, as does happen with us gardeners. Things twist, things change, new ideas come to me (thank you, muse), old ideas prove unworkable, I write, I rewrite, I restructure, I rip everything apart and rewrite again, I go through doors that lead nowhere, and doors that open on marvels.” he said.
“What I have noticed more and more of late, however, is my gardening is taking me further and further away from the television series. Yes, some of the things you saw on HBO in Game of Thrones you will also see in The Winds of Winter (though maybe not in quite the same ways)… but much of the rest will be quite different.” he added.
But the biggest bomb was this.
“One thing I can say, in general enough terms that I will not be spoiling anything: not all of the characters who survived until the end of Game Of Thrones will survive until the end of A Song Of Ice And Fire, and not all of the characters who died on Game Of Thrones will die in A Song Of Ice And Fire. (Some will, sure. Of course. Maybe most. But definitely not all).”
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Check out the trailer for House of The Dragon:
