In what is clearly an attempt to make Games of Thrones fans hate and love them even more, the producers of the HBO show have revealed they know how the series ends. Showrunners DB Weiss and David Benioff told Vanity Fair that they sat down with A Song of Ice and Fire author George R.R. Martin to talk about the series conclusion.
“Last year we went out to Santa Fe for a week to sit down with [George] and just talk through where things are going, because we don’t know if we are going to catch up and where exactly that would be,” Benioff said. “If you know the ending, then you can lay the groundwork for it. And so we want to know how everything ends. We want to be able to set things up. So we just sat down with him and literally went through every character.”
Just the thought of this knowledge is enough to make most fans drool with envy. The TV series, just like the books, continues to leave many questions tantalizingly unanswered, such as the ultimate fate of the Starks, Jon Snow’s heritage, and which king or queen will take the Iron Throne.
The sit down with the HBO producers was certainly necessary as Game of Thrones rapidly closes in on catching up with Martin’s books. When the show returns for its fourth season, it will complete the adaptation of Martin’s third book in the series. This leaves two other currently completed books to pull from until the author, notorious for his slow writing, finishes more.
“It’s a little complicated, because we have the five books, but then we don’t have anything beyond that, because he’s still working,” Benioff admitted. “It’s sort of an unusual position in terms of adaptation because, you know, we’re catching up. It’ll be interesting to see what happens. And we’ve talked to George. The lucky part is that George works with us and he’s a producer on the show.”
The author still has The Winds of Winter and A Dream of Spring to finish writing in the seven book series so he couldn’t tell Weiss and Benioff everything just yet. “I can give them the broad strokes of what I intend to write, but the details aren’t there yet,” Martin said. “I’m hopeful that I cannot let them catch up with me.”
Whenever Martin does finish those last two books, it will mean the end of the TV series will be drawing near as well. Weiss stated the show will not “just keep on going because it can.” Rather he and Benioff recognize that the series has a natural end and they have to respect that. Speaking with the wisdom so many other producers lack, he said, “I think the desire to milk more out of it is what would eventually kill it, if we gave in to that.”
Game of Thrones returns to HBO on Sunday, April 6.
