George RR Martin hits out at ‘traumatic’ Game of Thrones cuts as he claims show could’ve run for five more seasons
GEORGE RR Martin has opened up about the power struggle between himself and Game of Thrones’ TV producers.
The acclaimed author explained that he was forced to compromise not just on how much time was spent on certain story lines, but on which characters got the most screen time.
He didn’t mince his words when it came to describing the impact this had on him as the creator of Westeros.
"It can be... traumatic. 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," he told Fast Company.
“The [final] series has been... not completely faithful. Otherwise, it would have to run another five seasons,” he went on.
"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.'"
Martin’s comments will no doubt resonate with fans, given the decidedly mixed response to the final season of the show, which many branded ‘rushed’ and ‘oversimplified’.
In fact, it received the lowest approval ratings in the show's history, with a Rotten Tomatoes rating of 50% compared to 90% for all earlier seasons.
Still, that didn’t stop the fantasy epic from raking in wins at this year’s Emmy Awards.
The show raked in a whopping 32 nominations, bagging the all-important win for Outstanding Drama Series.
Elsewhere, Peter Dinklage won Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series for his portrayal of Tyrion Lannister.
What’s more, while Game of Thrones may be over, there a plenty of spin-offs in the works for fans.
Bloodmoon, starring Naomi Watts, has already wrapped filming on its pilot episode.
Meanwhile Martin confirmed that the untitled Targaryen prequel will feature dragons amid mass speculation.
The blog post came as fans began combing through his leaked original pitch for Game of Thrones, which featured all manner of deleted scenes.