George R.R. Martin bashes showrunner for House of the Dragon, finally speaking up on his major disagreements.
The prequel series to Game of Thrones, based on Martin’s series, A Song of Ice and Fire, is also based on Martin’s series, Fire & Blood. House of the Dragon was the first spinoff to air after Game of Thrones finished in 2019.
And after so long, Martin has finally opened up about the breakdown of his relationship with the showrunner, Ryan Condal, describing the state as “abysmal”.
This isn’t the first time that the fantasy author has made a comment about the show though, as he previously criticised the second season of the show over the plot changes that he “argued against” in a since-deleted blog post.
IN a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Martin came clean, saying that his relationship with Condal is “worse than rocky. It’s abysmal.”
“I hired Ryan. I thought Ryan and I were partners. And we were all through the first season. I would read early drafts of the scripts. I would give notes. He would change some things. It was working really well — I thought.”
“Then we got to season two, and be basically stopped listening to me,” Martin continued in the interview. “I would give notes, and nothing would happen. Sometimes he would explain why he wasn’t doing it. Other times, he would tell me, ‘Oh, OK, yeah, I’ll think about that.'”
“It got worse and worse, and I began to get more and more annoyed. Finally, it got to a point where I was told by HBO that I should submit all my notes to them and they would give Ryan our combined notes.”
When asked if Martin agreed to the work on season 3 after clashing with Condal, he said, “I can’t talk about it.” The third season is set to air in the summer of 2026, though the specific date has yet to be announced.
Despite Martin’s disagreement with House of the Dragon direction, he has said nothing but good things about the newest prequel, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, which is another adaptation that premieres on January 18 on HBO.
The fourth season of House of the Dragon has been ordered by HBO, but only time will tell if Martin and Condal can remedy the situation on the course of the show.