Just when you thought it couldn't get any worse—Game of Thrones showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss recently went on a panel discussion during the Austin Film Festival and revealed several disappointing tidbits about the production of the much-loved series. From not listening to fan feedback to coming clean about being "inexperienced" and not knowing what exactly they were doing as they were making the show, what the two writers had to say came as a shock to many.
Game of Thrones mostly remained faithful to its source material, but given that its body of work penned by George R.R. Martin has yet to be finished, the show's creators ran out of material to follow as the HBO series went on. That, of course, left the show to the hands of its writers Benioff and Weiss who if you may recall, earned a ton of backlash during the show's final season which aired last May.
As Twitter user @ForArya chronicled in a series of tweets during the panel discussion, the two showrunners admitted to not listening to their fans during the show's entire eight-year run.
Speaking on whether or not they bothered understanding the book's major themes, the two responded by saying that the scope was "too big" and it was mostly about the scenes they were trying to depict and the power that mattered. They also talked of how upon pitching the idea to HBO, they promised to "downplay" the fantasy elements.
One thing they did listen to fans about though was casting. Benioff credited casting pages for leading them to find Jason Momoa, who had been a fan favorite for the role of Khal Drogo which he did manage to land.
Despite all of these, however, Game of Thrones still won the Emmy for Best Drama Series this year. It also has a prequel series in development, so this is definitely not the last we'll be hearing from Benioff and Weiss' take on the A Song of Ice and Fire universe.
Related: Game of Thrones Showrunners Exit Their Deal With Lucasfilm
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Game of Thrones