[Book spoilers]: GoT producers expect 8 seasons

[protar]

George wants to finish the story in two more books, each with a page count of about 1500. He's said he's written about 400 pages for TWOW, but 200 of those were carried over from ADWD. This means that he's written 200 out of 3000 pages these past two years. Let us suppose he keeps this pace up. That means the story should be finished in 2028 or so. I don't know if I can hold off on watching the television show for that long. After all, I might have my own holodeck by then and will want to participate in some of the sex scenes HBO has coming up.

Not sure if sarcasm or not.

In the event that it's not sarcasm, that's 400 completed pages he's got. For all we know he could have another 400 pages in draft form which by the end of the year are also completed. And he's just recently cleared a lot of side-projects off his plate so his speed should be a lot faster in 2014.

[The Scabbard Of the Morning]

80 episodes does not mean 8 seasons, I see the producers doing a season 7 part 1 and part 2, like the sopranos.

[Colonel Green]

Let's not forget that we don't automaticially has to have one season per year. For The Sopranos, sometimes it went almost two years between seasons.

That was because of production issues, not something the show planned or wanted.

80 episodes does not mean 8 seasons, I see the producers doing a season 7 part 1 and part 2, like the sopranos.

How is that in any way a meaningful distinction? If they're ten episodes each, and shown a year apart, that's the same thing.

I immediately thought of Bronn when they talked about killing characters who are alive in the books.

Strikes me as unlikely. Bronn has a perfect "out" written into the series (indeed, we have no idea whether he'll be of any significance in the future books, though I like to imagine him being one of the first lords to join Dany when she arrives, rising even higher), and there's no particular reason or scenario where his death would make much sense.

[The Scabbard Of the Morning]

Financials, if it's 7 season with 2 parts, the contracts for the actors don't have to be renewed.

[Colonel Green]

Financials, if it's 7 season with 2 parts, the contracts for the actors don't have to be renewed.

While I obviously haven't seen their contracts, deals like that tend to specify the numbers of episodes. Otherwise you could just declare arbitrarily that the next season will consist of 50 episodes spread over 5 years.

[Khal-a-bunga]

Yeah, the way the show has been structured with cliffhangers and ~shocking moments~ has contributed towards making this show rely on its own hype. Once that hype diminishes (and it eventually will, regardless of how shocking it continues to be), the show is in trouble. With the great moments of season four, the hype should carry the show all the way to the best moments of ADwD which will hopefully maintain the hype. It depends on what material they include in season four, however, and whether they allow the show to evolve.

By and large, the show doesn't utilize cliffhanger endings, and nearly all of the "shocking moments" are taken directly from the books, so I'm not sure what point you were trying to make here. Also, every show relies on its own hype; that's pretty much the name of the game. Are you suggesting that they should avoid these things in order to "evolve", and if so, in what way?

[protar]

Strikes me as unlikely. Bronn has a perfect "out" written into the series (indeed, we have no idea whether he'll be of any significance in the future books, though I like to imagine him being one of the first lords to join Dany when she arrives, rising even higher), and there's no particular reason or scenario where his death would make much sense.

Didn't Martin confirm we hadn't seen the last of Bronn? Or am I just making that up?

[Khal Porno]

Yeah, the way the show has been structured with cliffhangers and ~shocking moments~ has contributed towards making this show rely on its own hype. Once that hype diminishes (and it eventually will, regardless of how shocking it continues to be), the show is in trouble. With the great moments of season four, the hype should carry the show all the way to the best moments of ADwD which will hopefully maintain the hype. It depends on what material they include in season four, however, and whether they allow the show to evolve.

TV shows use cliffhangers and shocking moments to keep viewers on their toes and anticipating what comes next, and they create and utilize their own hype to build awareness and keep viewers coming back.

I'm not sure how that translates to being cheap, or evidence that Game of Thrones is somehow a lesser work than other television shows because they utilize the same strategy.

[Khal Porno]

By and large, the show doesn't utilize cliffhanger endings, and nearly all of the "shocking moments" are taken directly from the books, so I'm not sure what point you were trying to make here. Also, every show relies on its own hype; that's pretty much the name of the game. Are you suggesting that they should avoid these things in order to "evolve", and if so, in what way?

His point is show bad, books good.

[go joff go]

Didn't Martin confirm we hadn't seen the last of Bronn? Or am I just making that up?

When they said that they would could kill someone early my first thought was actually Brienne. Her arc seems to be one of the prime candidates to be shortened.

[boojam]

I didn't understand this one:

"WEISS: It drives him( Geroge) nuts that characters are fighting without wearing their helmets.

BENIOFF: That’s one of the places where we talk about the difference between the source material and the medium you’re transporting it to. It doesn’t matter whether a character has a helmet on in the book because we can access what’s inside the helmet, but in TV, we can’t do that unless we can see the guy’s face. It’s a mundane-sounding thing, but it impacts the kinds of things you can do and can’t do onscreen."

I could give Benioff and Weiss an uncountable number of examples , costumes dramas, ancient history to medieval knights in film and even TV where wearing a helm did not interfere with knowing who it was.

For instance one saw enough of Brad Pitt's face as Achilles in Troy to always know who he was, lord I cite a thousand examples.

Have Stannis wear an open face helm as Colin Farrell did in Alexander the great.

I'm with George on this one.

[Rashtibram]

Jesus people. When Martin talked about characters being killed off in the TV show who were still alive in the books... I don't know, shouldn't Talisa be the first person to come to mind, not Bronn or Brienne?

I think eight seasons is quite logical:

2014: season 4 (ASOS pt. 2)

2015: season 5 (AFFC/ADWD)

2016: season 6 (TWOW pt. 1*)

2017: season 7 (TWOW pt. 2)

2018: season 8 (ADOS)

*Given that The Winds of Winter is being set up to be similar in scope to ASOS, it's likely it will produce 2 seasons of material; this is all for the better, as it gives GRRM more time to work on ADOS, assuming of course that he finishes TWOW in 2015. In any case, it's highly unlikely that he'll finish ADOS by 2018, but we can hope.

[YouSnowNothing]

Jesus people. When Martin talked about characters being killed off in the TV show who were still alive in the books... I don't know, shouldn't Talisa be the first person to come to mind, not Bronn or Brienne?

In the context of the interview, D&D seemed to be referring to characters being killed off in S4, so their deaths are still to come on the show, whoever they might be. But yeah, such characters will probably be more minor characters like Grenn or Rorge, not people like Brienne.

[boojam]

When they said that they would could kill someone early my first thought was actually Brienne. Her arc seems to be one of the prime candidates to be shortened.

"BENIOFF: We have a death coming up, and a lovely young woman who does not want to die."

I am curious about that too, we know Sibel Kekilli character dies I am thinking that's the one who actor who didn't want to.

I expected Rose Leslie ( Ygritte ) to bite the biscuit this season , I think Rose too know her fate, but I am beginning to wonder if she going to be combined with another book character, we shall see.

I know that Brienne does not have much to do , GRRM almost offed her in the books, but her arc seems to have something in the future.

So was Benioff speaking of an unexpected death of a character who's still around in the book?

So far it's only been minor characters , some , as George said were still alive in the books.

The number of character in the East are just a few , since they did away with all of Dany's handmaidens and she only has

Missandei I can't see it being Nathalie Emmanuel. In fact the game pieces in the East are going to lose, maybe not for good, one character, all the Meereeneese characters are kind of shadows in a way.

One thing that starts to bother me is you can cut the characters on the board down so much in story before you start to damage the game drama , unless George is going to non-linear on us...

[boojam]

Didn't Martin confirm we hadn't seen the last of Bronn? Or am I just making that up?

I don't know about Bronn, but George liked Natalia Tena so much he said he was going bring Osha forward again , as it is she should have vanished season 2.

[Ser Luke.]

"BENIOFF: We have a death coming up, and a lovely young woman who does not want to die."

I am curious about that too, we know Sibel Kekilli character dies I am thinking that's the one who actor who didn't want to.

I expected Rose Leslie ( Ygritte ) to bite the biscuit this season , I think Rose too know her fate, but I am beginning to wonder if she going to be combined with another book character, we shall see.

I know that Brienne does not have much to do , GRRM almost offed her in the books, but her arc seems to have something in the future.

So was Benioff speaking of an unexpected death of a character who's still around in the book?

So far it's only been minor characters , some , as George said were still alive in the books.

The number of character in the East are just a few , since they did away with all of Dany's handmaidens and she only has

Missandei I can't see it being Nathalie Emmanuel. In fact the game pieces in the East are going to lose, maybe not for good, one character, all the Meereeneese characters are kind of shadows in a way.

I think it's probably Sibel K. who doesn't want to die, although Ygritte is certainly a possibility.

[King Tommen]

It's either Shae or Ygritte, there's no real mystery. They're both scheduled to die this season. Why fans want to read any more into this is beyond me...

[Arkash]

Because D&D often like to tease us with this kind of sentence...

[go joff go]

This is the part I was referring to. "There are also some characters we have to kill who don’t die in the books, or who are going to die earlier in the series than the books. So we don’t want people to be too confident that they know exactly what’s going to happen, and it is hard. You work a long time on this show and you become close to people, and the idea of killing them doesn’t just mean this character isn’t going to be in the series anymore, it means basically we’re not going to see this person." I took that to mean someone besides Ygritte, Shae, Tywin, RV, Balon. ITs not going to be a stark kid or a Lannister sibling, and doesn't seem likely to be a greyjoy, nor LF/Varys. That sort of leaves the Tyrells/ Briene/Bronn. Margaery seems unlikely, but I could definitely see them killing off Loras/QOT/MACE. I guess Gilly is a candidate too.

[boojam]

This is the part I was referring to. "There are also some characters we have to kill who don’t die in the books, or who are going to die earlier in the series than the books. So we don’t want people to be too confident that they know exactly what’s going to happen, and it is hard. You work a long time on this show and you become close to people, and the idea of killing them doesn’t just mean this character isn’t going to be in the series anymore, it means basically we’re not going to see this person." I took that to mean someone besides Ygritte, Shae, Tywin, RV, Balon. ITs not going to be a stark kid or a Lannister sibling, and doesn't seem likely to be a greyjoy, nor LF/Varys. That sort of leaves the Tyrells/ Briene/Bronn. Margaery seems unlikely, but I could definitely see them killing off Loras/QOT/MACE. I guess Gilly is a candidate too.

Except for the mysterious fate of Jon , is there a major character killed off in AFoC and ADwD?

I don't count Maester Aemon he seems dead already!

Unless you count Lysa Arryn as a major character.

Apparently Mance did not die.

Now Lancel Lannister was not even in this season, be odd , but they could bring him back and kill him off, I know , in an interview he wanted back , could get rid of a speaking role that way.

As I said , so far, it's been secondary characters, to do in either Brienne or Osha would rob the cast of some colorful characters.

Michelle Fairley, Richard Madden must have known a long time, I don't know about Oona Chaplin , she may have figured it out... , I am sure Jack Gleeson must knows his fate, and we know for sure Charles Dance knows his, because he is amused by it.