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Earlier this week, we brought you the story of Game of Thrones mastermind George R.R. Martin reportedly being concerned about the trajectory of the TV series as early as season six, a full two years before the show eventually went off the air in 2019. Now, according to reports from his reps, Martin would often fly to New York City to “beg” HBO executives in New York City to have the series run for 10 seasons.
Logic would suggest that — given the massive, unprecedented success of the series — HBO would bend over backward to extend its life for as long as possible, especially considering that its creator thought it was a good idea to do so. So, then why didn’t happen? Because showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss were burnt out, which certainly manifested itself in the sloppiness of the final 10 episodes or so.
“George would fly to New York to have lunch with Plepler, to beg 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 more entertaining experience,” Martin’s agent Paul Haas said in James Andrew Miller’s new book “Tinderbox: HBO’s Ruthless Pursuit of New Frontiers.
“[Showrunners D.B. Weiss and David Beniof] were tired, rightfully so. They were done, and wanted to move on, so they cut it short and then negotiations became, how many seasons can we stretch this out? Because of course HBO wanted more.” [via Insider]
In the years since Game of Thrones went off the air, Benioff and Weiss have struggled to reclaim the creative leverage they once possessed, having been booted off a potential Star Wars trilogy. Their next project, The Three-Body Problem over at Netflix, has also faced similar developmental struggles (although they did recently tap Eiza Gonzalez to star in the series, which is an objectively good thing because more Eiza Gonzalez is never a bad thing).
RELATED: George R.R. Martin Was Concerned About ‘Game of Thrones’ Trajectory YEARS Before It Actually Ended
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