Game of Thrones: George RR Martin 'hasn't agreed' with everything the showrunners have done
Does this count as some sort of sacrilege?
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.Game of Thrones' season 6 was really a litmus test of sorts for the television show; an opportunity to see whether it could hold its own now that it's overtaken George R.R. Martin's own source novels.
Though not everyone may have perfectly agreed with showrunners David Benioff and Dan Weiss' creative decisions for the season, most would enthuse that it's been one of the most exciting yet; with its storylines now granted the freedom to adapt themselves for fittingly for the TV medium.
Indeed, Benioff and Weiss are now also free of incurring the wrath of faithful book readers; who, in the past, had raged about certain alterations made in the narrative in past seasons. And, as it turns out, even the author himself wasn't always in agreement with the show's decisions; as revealed by the pair on the UFC Unfiltered podcast.
Though they insisted that Martin is eternally "a grown-up and a gentleman" about his disagreements; they added, "We talked to George a lot about this - especially when we started out the process - and the great thing about George is that he worked in television for more than 10 years, He'd got Emmy nominations before this [show] so he knew how the sausage got made. A lot of authors who have their work adapted have never been part of an adaptation process before and they get really precious about every last thing."
"Not to say that George has agreed with everything we've done, but by and large, on the grander scale, he gets what you need to do to adapt something and he's a grown-up and a gentleman about it."
The duo played coy, however, when asked how Martin felt towards their decision to resurrect Jon Snow; with the author ending his last novel, 2011's A Dance with Dragons, with Snow's betrayal and murder by the Night's Watch. "I don't know how to give an answer without spoiling something for the books. The books and the series are so different now that I don't want to say anything that might give away something that he's going to do," they teased.
But what might those things be? "We know some of the things he's doing," they stated. "We know some of his distant plans… but he doesn't necessarily know everything that's going to happen until he writes it!"
It's a wonder, then, what Martin would think about Benioff and Weiss' openness to potential spin-off shows in the future; though they made clear no plans are currently in place for such.
Game of Thrones season 7 will premiere in 2017, though its released has been delayed due to (quite unusual) reasons.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments