The hype of Game of Thrones hasn’t died down since it’s less-than-satisfying finale back in May, and five months on we’re finally getting to learn the little behind the scene secrets and strange facts about the show
GOT has been a global phenomenon with die-hard fans so keeping true to the novels has always been a sensitive topic for the fandom
Now, David Benioff and DB Weiss have finally spoken up about their time on the show and we’re not too sure how to feel about any of it
Needless to say, a lot of what they said was shocking to both fans and author George RR Martin
The two writers made a rare appearance at the Austin Film Festival to discuss the series and revealed a lot of things about the show, including how they ‘didn’t know’ what they were doing on the show as they were inexperienced
Yeah, you read that right. David and DB were surprised HBO even let them proceed after their ‘dismal’ pilot episode
If you don’t want to be more heartbroken by these writers’ confessions, turn away while you can
Describing their first meeting with original author George RR Martin, David said: ‘We didn’t really have any [experience]
‘We don’t know why he trusted us with his life’s work.’ Yikes, what a brave confession to make after all the season eight backlash
They admitted to making basic writing mistakes, saying: ‘Everything we could make a mistake in, we did,’ which included script, casting, and even costume design
To them, the experience was basically an ‘expensive film school’, an opportunity to learn how to write, produce and direct
Oh, and a shared scene between Robert Baratheon and Cersei Lannister was only added to fill a 100-minute contractual obligation, and they themselves didn’t even understand why they added the scene
However, they even admitted that the long episode helped them learn about the characters
Ooh sweet mother of Khaleesi, say it ain’t so. What might make you cringe even harder is when asked why they didn’t bring in more writers to the show, they simply replied: ‘Because we didn’t know better
’ HBO wanted to hire more writers but they chose only Bryan Cogman, their assistant, to write four episodes
They didn’t include women or POC in the writer’s room for one simple reason, they wanted it to only be the two of them
On the bright side of the painful panel, it turns out fans were the reason Jason Momoa became the Khalo Drogo we fell in love with
Showrunners David and DB recalled casting the star, which was proving almost impossible until fans had their say
‘It was really hard to find a good Khal Drogo,’ Benioff told the crowds at the Festival on Saturday afternoon
‘We had all these auditions and no one was quite right. And then we’re looking at some website that had “Fan Casting of Game of Thrones
” ‘A lot of it was kinda knuckleheaded, but some of it was really smart. And there was one person, or maybe a few people, who said, “Oh, it should be this guy Jason Momoa
”’ Um, yay? To add another nail to the notorious coffin, there were nothing fans could have done about the rise and downfall of the show’s storyline no matter what
When asked whether they even cared to check the feedback from fans, Dan said: ‘We really did not
’ Why? Because he didn’t see the value of considering other people’s reactions and Dave just didn’t want to be upset
The moral of the story seems to be ‘fake it until you make it’ but in their defence, they did make Game of Thrones one of the biggest shows of all time
We don’t know about you, but we need to sit down after that rollercoaster of confusion