Game of Thrones writers admit they ‘don’t know why George RR Martin trusted them’ after ‘mistakes with everything’
THE writing duo behind Game of Thrones have admitted to a plethora of mistakes in the wake of the final season.
The Westeros drama ruffled feathers aplenty with its last collection of episodes, with many fans and even directors who worked on the show branding them ‘rushed’ and ‘oversimplified’.
Now David Benioff and DB Weiss have added fuel to the fire with an extremely candid chat at the Austin Film Festival.
The pair confessed that they were shocked to bag the project in the first place, given the prestige of George RR Martin’s A Song of Ice & Fire novels.
“We didn’t really have any [experience]. We don’t know why he trusted us with his life’s work,” David said.
He added that they were surprised the fantasy epic was commissioned in the first place after they deemed the pilot episode to be “dismal”.
David even referred to the entire undertaking as “expensive film school” in reference to the steep learning curve, owning up to plenty of blunders.
“Everything we could make a mistake in, we did,” he said of the likes of script, casting, and even costume design.
As for why they didn’t involve other writers in the creative process?
“Because we didn’t know better,” they quipped.
They even relied on fans of the book to help cast the show – which is exactly how the hunky Jason Momoa was discovered.
“It was really hard to find a good Khal Drogo,” Benioff told the crowds on Saturday afternoon.
“We had all these auditions and no one was quite right. And then we’re looking at some website that had ‘Fan Casting of Game of Thrones.’
“A lot of it was kinda knuckleheaded, but some of it was really smart. And there was one person, or maybe a few people, who said, ‘Oh, it should be this guy Jason Momoa.’”
Elsewhere in the chat they admitted that they “really did not” take audience feedback on board, so as not to upset themselves.
The festival appearance comes after David and DB pulled out of their Star Wars contract with Lucasfilm.
They signed a massive deal with the Disney-owned company back in February to produce a new trilogy of movies, expected to hit screens in 2022.
However Benioff and Weiss have now pulled out of the deal, claiming they don’t have the time to devote to it because of their Netflix commitments.
In a statement to , Benioff and Weiss said: “There are only so many hours in the day, and we felt we could not do justice to both Star Wars and our Netflix projects, so we are regretfully stepping away.”
Game of Thrones is available to stream on NOW TV.