Game of Thrones creators discuss how the show's ending will differ from the books
Show has potential to ruin the books for people if writers aren't mindful, says co-creator David Benioff
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Your support makes all the difference.Game of Thrones writers have explained how much the show’s ending will differ from the books – and how they work with author George R R Martin to ensure both the series and the books remain relevant to fans.
The HBO show is, of course, based on Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire book series. Game of Thrones used the books as source material until around season five, when it started jumping ahead of the novels.
The series is now about to end with its eighth season (premiering on 14 April), while A Song of Ice and Fire should get two more volumes.
“[The concern] used to be that the books would spoil the show for people — and luckily it did not, for the most part,” David Benioff, one of the show’s two co-creators, told Entertainment Weekly.
“Now that the show is ahead of the books, it seems the show could ruin the books for people.”
Even though the final series premiere is just days away, the creators still are not going into exact details about the ending – but they shed some light into how they work with Martin to preserve the appeal of both the show and books.
Benioff said he and co-creator D B Weiss, have spoken with the author and decided not to disclose exactly how the novels and the show differ from each other, so that fans can still enjoy them separately.
“It’s kind of nice for [Martin] because — obviously through necessity we’ve pulled out ahead — the show has become so different [in recent seasons] that people will have no way knowing from watching what will or won’t appear in the books,” Weiss said.
Adding to that is the fact that the showrunners themselves have no exact knowledge of what’s to come in the forthcoming A Song of Ice and Fire tomes, Weiss and Benioff added.
The most recent volume in the series, A Dance with Dragons, came out in 2011.
Martin has confirmed that he is still working on the final instalments, writing in December 2018: “It won’t be tomorrow, and it won’t be next week, but you will get the end of A Song of Ice and Fire.”
Game of Thrones is available on Sky Atlantic and NOW TV in the UK, and on HBO in the US.
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