The final season of Game of Thrones has long passed, but the ire against the showrunners for various creative decisions still burns hot, and recent comments from writers David Benioff and D.B. Weiss aren’t helping quell the fury.
Speaking at a panel during the Austin Film Festival, the former showrunners discussed the process of making the acclaimed television series and the decision making they had to do while writing for the show. Many of their comments were shared publicly via a Twitter-thread for user @ForArya.
Image Via Fox News
During the panel, Benioff and Weiss talked about the beginning of the show’s production. Specifically, how bad the original pilot went, writing most of the episodes, and how both were surprised that George R.R. Martin trusted them to adapt their work despite their lack of experience:
David is describing the pre-meeting with GRRM who was questioning their bona fides and “we didn’t really have any.” We had never done TV and we didn’t have any. We don’t know why he trusted us with his life’s work.”
— Needle & Pen (@ForArya) October 26, 2019
They acknowledge that they have no idea why after such a dismal pilot why they went forward. “Everything we could make a mistake in, we did.” Script, casting, costume.
They think HBO went forward bc they had a lot of foreign pre-sales on the series.
— Needle & Pen (@ForArya) October 26, 2019
The moderator asked why they chose to write all the episodes by themselves: “Because we didn’t know better.” David said HBO wanted them to hire other writers and they decided to have Bryan Cogman, their assistant, write four episodes.
— Needle & Pen (@ForArya) October 26, 2019
The most head-scratching revelations concerned the writing of the show. Benioff and Weiss admitted to trying to downplay the fantasy elements of the show in order to appeal to a wider audience as well as intentionally not trying to understand the major elements of the book because the scope was “too big”:
Dan wanted to remove as many fantasy elements as possible bc “we didn’t just want to appeal to that type of fan.” They wanted to expand the fan base to people beyond the fantasy fan base to “mothers, NFL players”…
— Needle & Pen (@ForArya) October 26, 2019
Did you really sit down and try to boil the elements of the books down? Did you really try to understand it’s major elements.
No. We didn’t. The scope was too big. It was about the scenes we were trying to depict and the show was about power.
— Needle & Pen (@ForArya) October 26, 2019
With these comments, it seems like Benioff and Weiss didn’t really seem to care about GOT as much as the fans, especially given that they didn’t even listen to fan feedback during the show’s run:
Dan: “it was like a ten year drunk party.”
— Needle & Pen (@ForArya) October 26, 2019
Were you listening to the feedback to your fans as things went along?
Dan: “We really did not.”
Dan doesn’t see the value of considering other people’s reactions.
Dave acknowledged that he googled the show and it upset him. Dan, no. @dndgoogling
— Needle & Pen (@ForArya) October 26, 2019
These comments are surely going to get people excited for their upcoming Star Wars trilogy. Oh wait…
Featured Image Via Vox