George R.R. Martin Admits He's More Hands-On With 'House Of The Dragon' Than He Was With 'Game of Thrones'

Popular writer, George R.R. Martin, recently said that compared to the HBO hit show, "Game of Thrones," he held more sway in the prequel, "House of the Dragon." The new series premiered on August 21 and took place two centuries before the events of "Game of Thrones."

The author revealed that although the series ended in its eighth season, his initial plan and request was for it to get to at least ten seasons; however, it was rejected. Martin also previously said that he was not consulted about the series after season five, so things could progress differently with him being more hands-on with the new series.

Martin, the author of novels that gave rise to "Game of Thrones" and its prequel, "House of the Dragon," recently talked about his influence on the new show. In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, he discussed the prequel that premiered on Sunday.

The author said, "I had no contribution to the later seasons except, you know, inventing the world, the story, and all the characters. I believe I have more influence now than I did on the original show."

Martin also talked about his attempt to extend the "Game of Thrones" series to at least ten seasons, but his request was rejected. He said, "I was saying it needs to be ten seasons at least and maybe 12, 13. I lost that one."

In an interview with Insider, the showrunner of "House of the Dragon," Ryan Condal mentioned that the author, not his books, supplied new information about the Targaryen family, which was revealed at the end of the first episode.

Martin previously revealed that while David Benioff and Dan "D.B" Weiss, the showrunners of "Game of Thrones," consulted him in the show's first few seasons, he was not involved later on.

In an interview with John Koblin from The New York Times, the author revealed that he was not told why he was not involved however the show started veering from the novel in season five. He explained that at the time, he was writing the series and was still yet to finish it.

The series is titled "A Song of Ice and Fire" and was initially set to have seven books. At the moment, Martin has only released five and has been on "The Winds of Winter," book six, for almost ten years.

"Game of Thrones" ended in 2019 in its eighth season. The show had two shortened seasons and 73 episodes, which fell short of Martin's request. In "Tinderbox: HBO's Ruthless Pursuit of New Frontiers" by James Andrew Miller (as per Insider), the author reportedly did not want the series to end that way and asked for around a hundred episodes in total and ten seasons.

Miller, the journalist, conducted over 750 interviews while writing the book and revealed that Paul Haas, Martin's agent said the author occasionally boarded flights to talk to the previous CEO of HBO, Richard Plepler, to extend the show as there was sufficient material for it.

Haas said, "George would fly to New York to have lunch with Plepler, to beg him to do ten seasons of ten episodes because there was enough material for it and to tell him it would be a more satisfying and more entertaining experience."

He revealed that the showrunners, Benioff and Weiss, wanted to move on from the series and started negotiations concerning how long the series would last. He added, "George loves Dan and Dave, but after season five, 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.'"

According to Insider, Miller also spoke to the chief content creator at HBO, Casey Bloys, who revealed that the television network "felt the final season delivered on its promise to fans, but more importantly, it executed the vision for the finale that Dan and Dave had planned so carefully."

He sympathized with fans who complained about the last episodes that saw Daenerys Targaryen's switch to a war criminal. Bloys claimed that although a few extra episodes would have been welcomed, the character's arc in the entire series showed that the outcome was not exaggerated.

Martin, on his part, talked about the series' impact on his life, claiming that while it was majorly positive, there were some negative effects. According to Miller's book, he said, "I wish it had run for ten years. 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."

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