Martin on Movies, Maegor and Menzies

George R.R. Martin may be the main source of promotion for the “seven seasons and a movie” rumors that periodically swirl around Game of Thrones, but as he reminds us every time they come up, take such rumors with several grains of salt. After all, he already had his chance to make A Song of Ice and Fire into a movie. But when Hollywood folk first came knocking in the wake of Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings success, he turned them down. Speaking on last night’s South Bank Show on SkyArts, he said his issue was with how much would have had to get cut in  order to fit his vision into a single movie.

“It took Peter Jackson three movies to make Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings, and he still had to cut things. It would take three movies for [third novel] A Storm of Swords alone! And if you figure like two movies for [first novel] A Game of Thrones, and two for [second novel] A Clash of Kings, you’re already up to seven movies and you’re halfway through the series. Nobody’s going to commit to that – and, of course, they didn’t commit to that.”

Worse, because Hollywood has issues with making movies about girls, Dany would have been badly sidelined in favor of Jon Snow.

“They said, ‘Well, we have to find – yes it’s true it’s too complex, it’s too big the way it is – but we have to find the central arc. And we’ve decided the central arc should be…Jon Snow’ So the whole movie would be about Jon Snow… That might be a good movie, it might be interesting, but it wouldn’t be my story. My story is a combination of stuff.”

Hollywood might have been able to make two or three movies, and perhaps even have one that focused completely on the exiled princess who gives birth to dragons, but only if the first movie was a success. But Martin saw how badly that could go—Phillip Pullman made that deal, and we never saw parts two or three of His Dark Materials after The Golden Compass flopped.

Still, even with a TV show that gave the books far more room to keep the intertwined plots intact, lots of stuff has been cut or changed. One of those things is the Night’s King, who we finally saw in all his glory in episode 8’s Massacre at Hardhome. The use of that name caused many to assume this was the same White Walker from 8000 years ago come back to life. But Martin, in a comment on his blog, says that’s not actually the case—at least, not in his version of the story.

“[I]n the books he is a legendary figure, akin to Lann the Clever and Brandon the Builder, and no more likely to have survived to the present day than they have.”

So is this a case of the producers using a character name, but for their own devices? (They’ve done that before, most recently with Mossador and Yezzan zo Qaggaz in Meereen this season.) We can’t be sure yet. Martin doesn’t say. What he does bring up though, is Mace Tyrell’s discussion last week about the Targaryen king “Maegor III,” which threw book readers. Martin thinks it was a mistake.

Maegor Who?

It is true that the Targaryen succession on the series is different than the one in the novels; most notably, the Mad King’s father Jaehaerys II was dropped, as was established way back in season one…The books are very complex…a television series calls for a bit more simplicity. Dropping a king or two accomplishes that. ADDING kings, however, would be a step in the opposite direction, which is why I think “Maegor III” had to be a mistake. And not one that was in the scripts, I would guess. Bryan Cogman, who is the Keeper of the Continuity on the series, knows the names of the Targaryen kings as well as I do. Of course, it could also be a subtle bit of characterization…intended to show that Mace is an idiot who does not know his Westerosi history.

That would certainly be keeping in tone with the scene, and with Mace, who has been rewritten for the show as a buffoon. His downgrade transfers more of the family ambition to Margaery, and puts Olenna Tyrell even more in charge than she already was.

In the top post these comments come from, Martin champions STARZ new series Outlander, which just finished it’s first season after drawing universal praise, as well as tons of comparisons to Game of Thrones.

If you haven’t been watching OUTLANDER, you’re missing a terrific TV series. Gorgeous to look at, and the performances by the three leads are terrific. Tobias Menzies, who played Brutus on HBO’s ROME and Edmure Tully on GAME OF THRONES, is especially noteworthy in a double role. (I just hope we’ll be able to get him back, if and when D&D decide to return to the Riverlands).

There are hints that the Riverlands might be part of Season 6. We’ll have to see if Edmure, the only survivor of the Red Wedding, will be making an appearance. I’m sure that, if they needs to, the two productions can work out a schedule.

• Published on 06/10/2015 at 12:30 PM CDT
• Last updated on 06/10/2015 at 1:22 PM CDT