In an escalation of tensions right out of the first Targaryen Civil War itself, things between Westeros creator George R.R. Martin and House of the Dragon showrunner Ryan Condal are even worse than we thought. Martin shared his legally allowed displeasure with the second season of the HBO series. This became rather pointed jabs at changes showrunner Ryan Condal made to the plot. Some fans, and Martin himself, found these to be arbitrary at best and detrimental at worst. Condal shot back, and it was a whole thing. Now, Martin has become even more candid in a new profile in The Hollywood Reporter in which he says his working relationship with Condal is, in his words, “abysmal.”
The piece, in which THR sat down with the 77-year-old author in Santa Fe, NM, where he lives, has the usual talking points. He’s excited about A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms series and still hemming and hawing about finishing The Winds of Winter (much less the book that’s supposed to come after that). But the thing that really had us shocked was how blunt—even more than usual—Martin is about his working relationship (or lack thereof) with Condal on HotD.
I ask Martin carefully: I know you can’t say much about this, but I was wondering how your relationship with Dragon showrunner Ryan Condal got so rocky?
“It’s worse than rocky,” Martin says, looking miserable. “It’s abysmal.”
Without getting into spoilers, Martin’s gripes about Dragon stem from disputes over changes to his book’s characters that impact key plot points.
“I hired Ryan,” Martin says. “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.”
When Ryan came to loggerheads with original Dragon co-showrunner Miguel Sapochnik, Ryan asked for Martin’s support in their dispute, and got it (Sapochnik left the show after season one).
“Then we got into season two, and he basically stopped listening to me,” Martin says. “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.”
Now that’s icier than north of the Wall. The piece further explains that Martin can’t say much more than that, but that sources say the true breaking point was a Zoom call with network execs when Condal gave his vision for the third season of House of the Dragon. When the presentation was over, Martin began his rebuttal ending in “This isn’t my story anymore.”
At this point HBO asked Martin to step back from creative input on House of the Dragon. However, he has since been reinstated and that’s why he can’t talk about it anymore. Fascinating stuff.
Whether this means Martin does have more say in House of the Dragon than he did for season two and presumably parts of three or if it’s merely making it so he can’t badmouth the series anymore is unclear. However, what is clear is that he and Condal are not on cordial terms. The showrunner, for his part, sticks to a statement he made a year ago in which he explained “I made every effort to include George in the adaptation process. I really did. … But at some point, he just became unwilling to acknowledge the practical issues at hand in a reasonable way.” He also says he hopes the duo can work together again and bury the hatchet.
Yikes on bikes. Now, whether you think the author is the key figure or adaptation requires change, it’s not good to have two opposing forces on a creative endeavor like this. Given some of our misgivings about what happened in season two, we tend to side with Martin. But in either case, we just want a good show. Let the chips fall where they may.
We’ll have to wait to see what fresh seven Hells await us in House of the Dragon season three and beyond.
Kyle Anderson is the Senior Editor for Nerdist. He hosts the weekly pop culture deep-dive podcast Laser Focus. You can find his film and TV reviews here. Follow him on Letterboxd.
The post George R.R. Martin Says Relationship with HOUSE OF THE DRAGON Showrunner ‘Abysmal’ appeared first on Nerdist.
This articles is written by : Nermeen Nabil Khear Abdelmalak
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