George RR Martin, who inspired Game of Thrones with his A Song of Ice and Fire book series, has spoken out about the popular HBO series. As it turns out, Martin, like many fans of the show, was not happy with the way things played out.
And while many people criticize the showrunners, Martin partially blames himself for not finishing the books before the show was completed.
“You can’t please everybody, so you’ve got to please yourself,” Martin told The Observer. “There were a couple of years where, if I could have finished the book, I could have stayed ahead of the show for another couple of years, and the stress was enormous. I don’t think [the TV series] was very good for me. The very thing that should have speeded me up actually slowed me down. Every day I sat down to write and even if I had a good day … I’d feel terrible because I’d be thinking: ‘My God, I have to finish the book. I’ve only written four pages when I should have written 40.’
“I took myself out of all that. Some of [the theories] are right and some of [the theories] are wrong. They’ll find out when I finish.”
Martin also says that he can’t go into bookstores without feeling some sort of guilt.
“I can’t go into a bookstore any more, and that used to be my favorite thing to do in the world. To go in and wander from stack to stack, take down some books, read a little, leave with a big stack of things I’d never heard of when I came in,” he said. “Now when I go to a bookstore, I get recognized within 10 minutes and there’s a crowd around me. So you gain a lot but you also lose things.”
What’s next for Martin is the Game of Thrones prequel.
It was believed that the prequel could be titled The Long Night, but Martin made it clear that the title has yet to be decided on.
Another unconfirmed rumor suggests that the prequel could be spearheaded by three female leads; Naomi Watts, Naomi Ackie, and Denise Gough.
HBO says that show will take place thousands of years before the current Game of Thrones timeline, during the fall of the Age of Heroes, and will explore the history of origins of the Starks family and the White Walkers.
As for what that means for when fans can expect the first Game of Thrones prequel to be released, 2021 is probably the safest bet.
With Watchmen premiering this fall and Westworld returning for its third season in 2020, HBO is likely in no rush to usher in a new big-budgeted prestige drama, meaning they’ll give the minds behind the Game of Thrones prequel all the time they need. For now, we will just have to wait while further details continue to leak.
