George RR Martin calls out 'toxic' fan behaviour around Game of Thrones finale

‘There were disagreements. There were feuds, but nothing like the madness that you see on the internet’

George RR Martin has revealed his displeasure at fan negativity around the final season of Game of Thrones.

The author behind the hit fantasy series spoke to the podcast Maltin on Movies, where he suggested the internet created a toxic environment compared to older fan platforms.

“The internet is toxic in a way that the old fanzine culture and fandoms – comic fans, science fiction fans in those days – was not,” he said.

“There were disagreements. There were feuds, but nothing like the madness that you see on the internet.”

Game of Thrones fans were so disappointed by the direction of series eight that they launched a petition, which received over a million signatures, demanding it be rewritten by “competent writers”.

It prompted Sophie Turner, who starred as Sansa Stark, to call those fans “disrespectful”, while Kit Harington (Jon Snow) said anyone complaining could “go f*** themselves”.

“All of these petitions and things like that – I think it’s disrespectful to the crew, and the writers, and the filmmakers who have worked tirelessly over 10 years, and for 11 months shooting the last season,” Turner said.

Addressing the show’s unprecedented success, Martin said: “The scale of Game of Thrones’s success has — reaching all over the world and invading the culture to [such an extent] — it’s not something anyone could ever anticipate, not something I expect to ever experience again.”