Before Game of Thrones wrapped up with its eighth and final season on HBO, there had been rumblings that creators David Benioff and Dan Weiss wanted to end the story with a trilogy of theatrical movies instead.
In a new WSJ. Magazine profile (via Variety), the Game of Thrones creators confirmed that they did want to end the series with three movies, which would have replaced the final two seasons. Although Benioff and Weiss pushed for the plan, HBO executives shot it down, reminding the pair that they worked for “Home Box Office” and not “Away Box Office.”
As alluring as Game of Thrones on the big screen might have been, the final season was already criticized for feeling rushed, and that’s with the majority of the episodes running around 80 minutes each. Cramming all of that story into three movies, likely two hours each, likely wouldn’t have done the show any favours.
Although Benioff and Weiss didn’t get their way with the Game of Thrones movies, they did get to shoot down a terrible idea from HBO’s then-owners, AT&T, who wanted to know if they could shoot episodes vertically so it would fit better on phones. They also brought up the idea of “snackable mini-episodes,” which just sounds…awful. “Dysfunction kills more projects than anything else, whether it’s interpersonal dysfunction or institutional dysfunction,” Weiss said.
Benioff added, “When you sign a five-year deal with a company, you want that company to be stable so you can be left alone to do your work and not have to worry about it being bought by the phone company. Finding the smoothest ride in the ocean was key.“
The duo’s next project finds them jumping to Netflix for 3 Body Problem. Based on the novel series by Liu Cixin, the series follows “a young woman’s fateful decision in 1960s China reverberates across space and time into the present day. When the laws of nature inexplicably unravel before their eyes, a close-knit group of brilliant scientists join forces with an unorthodox detective to confront the greatest threat in humanity’s history.” The series will debut on Netflix on March 21st.
Would you have liked to have seen a Game of Thrones movie trilogy wrap up the saga?