As Game of Thrones fans gear up for the fifth season of this hugely popular HBO show, speculation and rumours run rife, not least of which is the buzz around a possibility of extending the show’s run beyond the originally slated 7 seasons to 10.
“This discussion is nothing new, of course. I get asked similar questions every time I make a public appearance, do an interview, or walk a red carpet. My usual answer is a variant on, ‘I don’t know how many seasons the show will run.’ I don’t know. No one knows,” Martin stated in his Livejournal post.
“I do know that David & Dan have stated in interviews that they see the show winding up in seven seasons … I also know that HBO wants the series to run longer than that. I have known that since the very beginning… well, actually, since the day after the second episode of season one aired, when I had lunch with one of HBO’s top execs, who told me, “We want this to run ten years.” I allowed that ten years sounded fine to me. I continue to hear similar sentiments from HBO every time I have meeting with them, be it in L.A. or New York,” he adds.
George RR Martin also addressed the speculation about possible movie deals for his franchise. “I see that this new crop of stories also raises, once again, the notion of concluding the series with one or more feature films. And in some of these stories, once again, this idea is wrongly attributed to me. Let me state, yet again, that while I love this idea, it did NOT originate with me. It was a notion suggested to me, which I have enthusiastically endorsed,” Martin clarified. “Sure, I love the idea. Why not? What fantasist would not love the idea of going out with an epic hundred million feature film? And the recent success of the Imax experience shows that the audience is there for such a movie. If we build it, they will come. But will we build it? I have no bloody idea.”
Game of Thrones Season Five premieres on April 12, 2015 on HBO.