Could George R. R. Martin be unhappy with House of the Dragon adaptation?

Author George R.R. Martin recently posted on his website, Not A Blog, expressing his disappointment with how Hollywood approached adaptations of existing books and scripts. With the premiere of Season 2 of House of the Dragon just weeks away, fans have speculated that the post may refer to it.

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George R.R. Martin’s writes about Hollywood adaptations

Credits: Amy Sussman / Getty Images

Martin wrote a post titled ‘The Adaptation Tango,’ which he began by discussing a joint event at which he and author Neil Gaiman appeared in New York City in 2022. During this event, he and Gaiman agreed they disliked Hollywood’s tendency to change source material for their adaptations.

Martin was at the event promoting his book The Rise of the Dragon: An Illustrated History of the Targaryen Dynasty, Volume One. Attendees were given signed copies of the book and “Fire and Blood,” the source material for the House of the Dragon TV series.

He noted that very little has changed since 2022, and things have probably even worsened. He mentioned that screenwriters and producers everywhere are eager to make stories their own, regardless of whether they were written by renowned authors. The author wrote:

“That was all back in 2022, but very little has changed since then. If anything, things have gotten worse. Everywhere you look, there are more screenwriters and producers eager to take great stories and “make them their own.” It does not seem to matter whether the source material was written by Stan Lee, Charles Dickens, Ian Fleming, Roald Dahl, Ursula K. Le Guin, J.R.R. Tolkien, Mark Twain, Raymond Chandler, Jane Austen, or… well, anyone. No matter how major a writer it is, no matter how great the book, there always seems to be someone on hand who thinks he can do better, eager to take the story and “improve” on it. “The book is the book, the film is the film,” they will tell you, as if they were saying something profound. Then they make the story their own.

They never make it better, though. Nine hundred ninety-nine times out of a thousand, they make it worse.”

Fan speculation on Martin’s post

Credits: George R.R. Martin

Fans on Twitter speculated that this could be a criticism of later seasons of Game of Thrones, which adapted the story of Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire novels without having any source material since the final books in his series hadn’t been written yet. Showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss received criticism from critics and fans alike for their adaptation of Game of Thrones’ last few seasons.

However, others speculated that Martin references the upcoming House of the Dragon season. With the next season of the show just around the corner, many fans found the timing of the post suspicious, theorizing that the author is not happy with the changes made to his story.

However, Martin posted back in December about how he had watched some of House of the Dragon Season 2 episodes and been deeply touched by it. With news revealing that even more changes have been made, such as an important character’s time being cut, fans speculate Martin may be displeased at how much the adaptation strays from the source material.

Though there is no clear reference or indication of this fact, many fans on Twitter have already begun echoing his sentiment by reposting the quote from his blog.

The author concluded his post by stating that one of the few cases where an adaptation was done well was FX’s Shogun series, based on James Clavell’s novel of the same name. The show has been compared to Game of Thrones for its tone and subject material, and Martin stated that he was pleased with how it had been brought to life.

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