‘Game of Thrones’ Creator Suggests Showrunners Are Ending The Series Too Early

By Meghan O'Keefe @megsokay
Published Sep. 17, 2018, 7:04 p.m. ET

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Game of Thrones is officially ending in 2019, but the books’ author George R.R. Martin told Variety that the HBO series could have continued to “11, 12, 13 seasons” on the Emmys red carpet.

George R.R. Martin was attending the 2018 Emmys in support of HBO’s massive hit series, and while chatting with a reporter from Variety, the author revealed that he believed the show could have continued past its 2019 end date. “I don’t know,” Martin said. “Ask [Game of Thrones showrunners] David [Benioff] and Dan [Weiss] when they come through. We could have gone to 11, 12, 13 seasons, but I guess they wanted a life.”

Martin explained that the show could have done far more with characters who had been left on the cutting room floor. “If you’ve read my novels, you know there was enough material for more seasons. They made certain cuts, but that’s fine,” Martin said. Some of the biggest cuts included more complex characters in Dorne, including the ferocious princess Ariane Martell, and the reanimated version of Catelyn Stark, Lady Stoneheart.

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Still, Martin was optimistic about Game of Thrones‘ future with HBO. “We have five other shows – five prequels in development – that are based on other periods in the history of Westeros, some of them just a hundred years before Game of Thrones, some of them 5000 years before Game of Thrones,” he said. What’s interesting is that HBO head head Casey Bloys has only confirmed that one of the prequels in development, the one about the era known as “The Long Night,” is moving to the production stage. Martin’s comments suggest more prequels could make it to HBO in the future…

Martin was on the Emmys red carpet with collaborator Nnedi Okorafor, who is the author of the book Who Fears Death. Martin is producing a television version of the series for HBO and said he hopes it will be “one of the next big fantasy series.”

The eighth and final season of Game of Thrones will premiere on HBO next year.

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