George RR Martin told the New York Times that he was kept “out of step” during the last four seasons of HBO’s Game of Thrones, a mistake House of the Dragon co-showrunner Ryan Condal didn’t wanted to do while developing the upcoming prequel series. House of the Dragon is based on Martin’s 2018 novel Fire & Blood. Martin claimed he doesn’t know why Thrones showrunners DB Weiss and David Benioff had him estranged from the show.
According to The Times, “When Condal began working on ‘House of the Dragon,’ he drew heavily on Martin’s expertise – the opposite of what happened to Martin in later seasons of ‘Game of Thrones.’ In the early seasons, Martin wrote and read scripts, consulted on casting decisions, and attended sets. However, as he retired over time to focus on his long-delayed next ‘Thrones’ novel, ‘The Winds of Winter,’ Martin became estranged from the series.”
“In seasons 5 and 6, and certainly 7 and 8, I was pretty out of step,” Martin said of his involvement in Game of Thrones.
When asked why he was estranged from the show, Martin didn’t cite his work on The Winds of Winter, instead saying, “I don’t know — you’ll have to ask Dan and David.”
Martin did not agree with Benioff and Weiss’ decision to call off the show. The author has long imagined that “Game of Thrones” should run over 10 seasons. Martin’s agent Paul Haas announced last year that the writer was flying to New York City to meet with then-HBO CEO Richard Plepler to persuade him to extend the series’ television run.
“George flew to New York to have lunch with Plepler, to ask him to do 10 seasons of 10 episodes because there was enough material for it, and to tell him it would be a more satisfying and enjoyable experience.” said Hass. “[Weiss and Benioff] were tired, rightly so. They were done and wanted to move on, so they called it quits and then there were negotiations, how many seasons can we stretch this out? Because of course HBO wanted more.”
Martin published a blog post before Game of Thrones aired its final season, in which he wrote how “complex and a bit sad” it was to end the show in its eighth year. The writer added, “I wish we had a few more seasons. But I get it… I’m sure some of the actors have been signed for seven or eight years and they’d love to move on and do other roles. All of this is fair. I’m not angry or anything, but I have a little sadness.”
The world of Game of Thrones returns to HBO when House of the Dragon debuts on August 21.