The hit HBO fantasy series based on George R.R. Martin’s books premiered back in 2011 and kept viewers’ attention for eight intense seasons, but few people were happy with the show’s ending.
In the new episode of the Happy Sad Confused podcast, showrunners «Game of Thrones» David Benioff and D.B. Weiss stated they expected a better reaction from the audience.
«We knew there would be mixed reactions, but we were hoping for better than 50/50. We definitely didn’t want that much hate»,” says Benioff.
D. B. Weiss referred to the network effect in his commentary:
«We did not take into account the network effect. It can usually help a show as a line of positive feedback. But we didn’t take into account that some people will like the ending, and some will not».
«Game of Thrones», despite its modest start, has become one of the most popular shows on HBO. The number of viewers increased with each subsequent season — with the 8th season becoming the most popular with a staggering 46 million views.
By the time seasons 7 and 8 came out, the series had already surpassed the events of Martin’s original novel, so the creators had no source material and tried to complete a number of storylines on their own — including the confrontation with the Night King and the election of a new ruler of Westeros.
According to the latest reports, Martin wrote 1100 pages of the book «Winds of Winter» — the sixth book in the «A Song of Ice and Fire» series, which is based on «Game of Thrones» (as many as he has written as of December 2022).
The writer also announced 8 series from the «Game of Thrones» universe at once. In the summer, we expect to see second season «House of Dragon», also this year, the development «Knight of the Seven Kingdoms» — a series based on the novels about the Knight Dunk (Sir Duncan the High — later Lord Commander of the Kingsguard) and his squire Egg (later King Aegon V Targaryen).
HBO, meanwhile, is collaborating with «Batman» writer Matson Tomlin to create another series from the «Game of Thrones» — universe about Aegon «the Conqueror» Targaryen (the events will take place about 130 years before most of the events «House of the Dragon», i.e., almost 300 years before the events of the original series «Game of Thrones»).
As for the direct sequel «Game of Thrones», dedicated to Jon Snow — HBO has not yet given «the green light» for the series. Martin wrote on his blog that the idea for the spinoff came from Kit Harrington, who had already assembled a team of writers and consulted with the writer.
Meanwhile, David Benioff and D.B. Weiss have released a new collaboration — series «3 Body Problem», which is an adaptation of Liu Qixin’s bestselling novel. The show has received 11 million views on Netflix in just 4 days, making it the second most watched English-language show on the platform, but has received mixed reviews in China.