George R. R. Martin Asked HBO For 10 Seasons Of ‘Thrones’ & Worried About The Show Deviating From His “Template”

The final season of “Game of Thrones” will likely go down in history as one of the worst final seasons in TV history. The way David Benioff and DB Weiss clearly rushed the ending of the series left fans confused, alarmed, and ultimately, angry. And it appears George R.R. Martin worried that might be the case early on and was hoping HBO would make sure his epic was told in the appropriate amount of time. 

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According to interviews in the new book, “Tinderbox” (via Insider), which details the history of HBO, it’s revealed that George R.R. Martin was one of the biggest proponents of keeping “Game of Thrones” going, hoping for 10 seasons and 100 total episodes. His agent, Paul Haas, revealed that Martin would fly to New York to have lunch with former HBO CEO Richard Plepler about his idea for 10 seasons. Ultimately, it was for naught. 

“Dan and Dave were tired, rightfully so,” Haas said. “They were done, and wanted to move on, so they cut it short and then negotiations became, how many seasons can we stretch this out? Because of course, HBO wanted more.”

He added, “George loves Dan and Dave, but after Season 5, he did start to worry about the path they were going because George knows where the story goes. He started saying, ‘You’re not following my template.'”

It’s not a shock that Martin would want more time to tell his story. Fans saw what happens when you rush the final seasons of ‘Thrones’ and it led to episodes that were some of the worst in the series, and a final season that is often regarded as an utter failure.

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“I wish it had run for ten years,” Martin said. “I think that would’ve given us a little more time in the later seasons to end it. But that might be just because I’m still trying to end it in these books here.”

He added, “I’m working on ‘The Winds of Winter’ even now as I have been for the best part of a decade. And hopefully, I’m going to get to that end soon and then people can argue about which ending they like better.”

Obviously, HBO isn’t deterred by the negative reaction that the final season of ‘Thrones’ received. We’ve seen the network move forward with development on a handful of spinoffs of Martin’s work. So, even though “Game of Thrones” might have rushed to the finish line, HBO has the chance to make sure that doesn’t happen again.