LOS ANGELES — George R.R. Martin saw the comments and read the email.
Ever since the groundbreaking HBO fantasy series Game of Thrones aired in May 2019, he’s been well aware of the backlash over the show’s final season. Martin, who has painstakingly crafted the world of “Thrones” through his many books over the last 30 years and mostly sat on the sidelines for the final season of the TV series, wondered if some viewers would skip “House.” I’m here. of the Dragon” is the first “Thrones” spin-off. The series will debut on his highly anticipated HBO and HBO Max on his August 21st.
“People say ‘Game of Thrones’ is over, they burned me, I’m not going to watch this new show, I’m not going to watch any new shows,” Martin said. Said. A recent interview.
The question is, what percentage of viewers of “Thrones” are complainers?
“So are we talking about a million people?” he asked. “Or are you talking about 1,000? Someone who has nothing to do but tweet multiple times all day? I don’t know.”
Martin and HBO are trying to uncover the truth.
Three years after the most popular show in HBO’s history was canceled, the search for a successor is finally over. I had a hard time getting here. Numerous “thrones” prequels were developed and another spin-off pilot his episode filmed before being canceled. Tens of millions of dollars were poured into the bake-off winner, House of the Dragon.
The stakes are high. The success of “House of the Dragons” reassured HBO executives that audiences were desperate for more “Thrones” stories, and many more set in Westeros and beyond. program. In addition to this series, HBO has at least five other “Thrones” projects in active development.
HBO’s Chief Content Officer Casey Bloys said: “I want to create a show that feels relevant and respectful to the source material, but also feels unique.
“This is a very important franchise for us.”
But if the first one out of the gate fails to find an audience, it could raise questions as to whether the Thrones Cinematic Universe really is the intellectual property goldmine HBO executives want.
Discovery executives, HBO’s new rulers, are saddled with a staggering $53 billion in debt and are looking to save money. “House of the Dragon” will also have a lot of competition in the space that will be a blockbuster. Two weeks after his prequel run, Amazon debuts the highly-expensive and ambitious Lord of the Rings: Ring of Power. Are his two flashy, big-budget fantasy series too much for some viewers?
And as the series galloped far beyond the unfinished work of Martin’s book series, A Song of Ice and Fire, the final few left fans and critics scratching their heads at hairpin narrative turns. You have to get over the stink of the episode. ”
Return to Westeros in “House of the Dragon”
HBO’s highly anticipated ‘Game of Thrones’ spin-off debuts on August 21st.
But they are challenges.
From 2011 to 2019, “Thrones” was the most-watched show in HBO’s history. The controversial finale drew nearly 20 million viewers the night it premiered. Thrones was a hit with critics and won more Emmy Awards than any other series in television history, including Best Drama for him four times.
This series changed television in so many ways. It can be a little too easy to overlook the incredibly strong foundations built for the spinoff, including fancy budgets, technical magic, and cinematic scope that was once rare on the small screen.
“I think it’s a little closer to the story online than it really is,” Bloys said of the final season’s backlash. is consistently among the top 10 assets watched on HBO Max, and as the show nears its premiere, viewership on HBO Max for the flagship series soars as we see people returning. I’ve seen you.”
“House of the Dragon” is set almost 200 years before “Game of Thrones.” The series follows House Targaryen — it’s the silver-haired dragon-flying crew that Emilia Clarke (Daenerys Targaryen) famously made famous in the original series — just as it’s about to burst into disastrous realm. yields good results.
The premiere episode also includes elements familiar to Thrones viewers, such as large amounts of gore, multiple dragons, and the Iron Throne. Also nudity and orgies.
It took me over five years to get here. In May 2017, just as his penultimate season of ‘Game of Thrones’ was about to debut, the network announced four possible spinoffs of his. A year later, a candidate was selected. It’s a prequel that takes place about 1,000 years before the events of the original series.
It doesn’t last long. By 2019, the network was unplugged after the pilot was shot.
“When I saw the first pilot, I knew it wasn’t the series to launch,” said Bob Greenblatt, the former chairman of WarnerMedia Entertainment, who oversaw HBO. I couldn’t feel the sex and grandeur enough.”
At that time, the clock was also ticking. HBO has been very cautious about developing spinoffs, and his WarnerMedia, then owned by AT&T, was months away from the debut of his new streaming service, HBO Max. Greenblatt was “desperate to get something into the pipeline from his IP for ‘Game of Thrones,'” he wrote.
“I understand Casey and the team’s reluctance to produce a new Game of Thrones show (especially since the backlash from the original series’ final season),” he added. rice field. “But while we all knew a sequel or prequel probably wouldn’t rise to the level of the original, there was agreement that something had to be done.”
Luckily, the network had another project in development, and it was one that Martin had been pushing for some time. It’s the story of the rise and fall of House Targaryen, which he wrote extensively in his book. Adapted from Martin’s Fire and Blood, House of the Dragon is the first in a two-volume project chronicling the family’s exploits and conflicts.
“He was very passionate about this particular story,” said original series veteran and House of the Dragon showrunner Miguel Sapochnik.
The network toured the two writers before Martin turned to an old friend for help. That is writer Ryan Condal, the creator of his science fiction show Colony in the United States.
Condal regularly interacted with Martin over dinner and drinks, and became enamored with the work of other fantasists such as Robert E. Howard, JRR Tolkien and Ursula K. Le Guin. “When we get together, we talk like two fanboys,” Martin said.
HBO executives liked what they saw with Martin signing on as creator and Condal as showrunner. HBO ordered “House of the Dragon” directly into the series after Sapochnik, who directed some of the original’s biggest episodes, also agreed to be showrunner.
“What I was drawn to about it was that it was a family drama,” Bloys said. I think everyone and every family in America has dealt with some version of this.”
When Condal came to work on “House of the Dragon,” he relied heavily on Martin’s expertise. This is the opposite of what happened to Martin in later seasons of “Game of Thrones.” In the early seasons, Martin wrote and read scripts, consulted on casting decisions, and visited sets. However, over time, he retired Martin estranged himself from the show created by D.B. Weiss and David Benioff to focus on his long overdue next Thrones novel, The Winds of Winter.
“By seasons five and six, and certainly seven and eight, I was pretty much out of the loop,” said Martin.
When asked why, he said, “I don’t know. I’ll have to ask Dan and David.” (Reps for Weiss and Benioff declined to comment.)
Martin also said that “Winds of Winter” (which he admitted was “very slow” but vowed to finish) deviated from where the series’ “Game of Thrones” went. Said there was
“My ending would change a lot,” he said.
Martin said he wants “Thrones” to do what Marvel has done – creating a world that Disney continues to mine and fans are sure to come see. , has been actively involved in other spin-offs in development.
“George has been a really valuable resource in this process for us,” says Bloys. “He is literally the creator of this world.
As for viewership totals, Bloys said he didn’t expect ‘House of the Dragon’ to match the height of ‘Game of Thrones’. , which was expected to lay the groundwork for future spin-offs.
“No world expects this to pick up where the original left off,” said Bloys. “I think the show is going to do really well.