Posted in: HBO, TV | Tagged: D B Weiss, David Benoiff, game of thrones, HBO, house of the dragon, max

Games of Thrones Creators on Turning Down HOTD Producing Credit

Game of Thrones creators David Benioff & D.B. Weiss on fans and why they turned down HBO's producing credit offer for House of the Dragon.

Game of Thrones creators David Benioff and D.B. Weiss are aware of their place in pop culture history, despite the storm they had to weather on the eighth and final season's backlash from fans, mostly online. While Peter Jackson's Lord of the Things trilogy set the bar cinematically for high fantasy, the duo's HBO incarnation of the George R. R. Martin novels in Thrones did the same for TV from 2011-2019. While promoting their new Netflix series 3 Body Problem, the two spoke to The Hollywood Reporter about how fans reacted to them in person and HBO's surprise when they turned down producer credits for the prequel spin-off series House of the Dragon.

Why Game of Thrones Creators David Benioff & D.B. Weiss Turned Down Credit for 'House of the Dragon'

Benioff and Weiss have largely spared themselves exposing themselves to social media and rarely give interviews during Game of Thrones' original run. Some accused the duo of rushing the final season to an early conclusion but have said in the past they originally planned the series only to be roughly seven seasons. Even with the controversial TV ending in 2019, Martin still hasn't completed the final two books of his A Song of Ice And Fire series, on which Game of Thrones is based. Of the interactions the two spoke about, it was largely cordial. "There's an underlying decency when people acknowledge you as a person and vice versa," Weiss said. "There's something that happens in the transition from human interaction to online that pushes things in a specifically aggro direction."

Even after their burdens with GoT, HBO is far from done with expanding the universe with their development of House of the Dragon – with Benioff and Weiss contractually obligated to receive producer credits on all spinoffs. Much to the premium cable network's surprise, the two turned down the offer. "HBO was kind of confused," Benioff said. "I remember their lawyer saying, 'But it's just money, we're just going to pay you.'" "I don't think there is such a thing as free money," Weiss added. "For us, if our name is on it, especially that, while being completely detached and uninvolved, it felt like the strain that would come with that hands-off approach — with its success or failure or anything in between — was not worth it."

For more on their work on 3 Body Problem, canceled Star Wars film, why Confederate got shelved, and if they've seen HOTD, you can check out the interview here. Game of Thrones is available to stream on Max.

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