HBO wrapped up its epic fantasy series Game of Thrones earlier this year, although the final season of the acclaimed adaptation of George R.R. Matin’s A Song of Ice and Fire didn’t quite manage to live up to the expectations it had set for itself in previous years.
Much (if not all) of the criticism fell upon showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, who – after running out of source material with Martin yet to publish two books of his seven-volume tome – opted to wrap things up with two condensed seasons and some creative choices that left many fans feeling frustrated.
Although we’re yet to know what Martin has in store himself for the climax of his book series, the author has revealed to Fast Company (via Digital Spy) that season eight wasn’t “completely faithful” to his own vision.
“It can be… traumatic,” said Martin with regards to book-to-screen adaptations. “Because sometimes their creative vision and your creative vision don’t match, and you get the famous creative differences thing – that leads to a lot of conflict. You get totally extraneous things like the studio or the network weighing in, and they have some particular thing that has nothing to do with story, but relates to ‘Well this character has a very high Q Rating so let’s give him a lot more stuff to do’. The series has been… not completely faithful. Otherwise, it would have to run another five seasons.”
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Given that Martin isn’t going to want to spoil his own plans, it’s unlikely that he’s going to get into any further specifics before the publication of The Winds of Winter and A Dream of Spring, which means we’ll likely face a lengthy wait to find out how just how faithful the series ultimately proved to be.
Originally published October 13, 2019. Updated October 14, 2019.
