“Game of Thrones was pitched as The Sopranos in Middle Earth”-Reveals George R.R. Martin

Game of Thrones was definitely the biggest TV show of the 21’st century. Very few shows come even close to the epic fantasy in terms of budget, cinematography, popularity, viewership, and the number of awards won. Game of Thrones still holds the record for the most number of Emmy Awards won to date. However, the show had really humble beginnings considering the money-minting juggernaut it would later become. The pilot episode itself had to be reshot entirely, and the reviews of the first season were pretty mediocre.

Game of Thrones author George R. R. Martin still reveals little bits of secrets every now and then about what happened behind the screens, right from how the idea of Game of Thrones developed. He told The Independent at the Santa Fe Literary Festival, “Game of Thrones was first sold by David Benioff and Dan Weiss, while I was still writing books, as I seem to be doing for the rest of my life.”

He continued, “I was out of television for a couple of years. David Benioff and Dan Weiss, the showrunners, were the guys who took it to HBO to see if they’d buy or option them. Their pitch was: ‘The Sopranos in Middle Earth’. You have to be able to say it in a sentence.”

He also offered a brief update on the upcoming novel The Winds of Winter, “On August 21, House of the Dragon, the sequel to Game of Thrones, will hit the airwaves on HBO,” said Martin. “Meanwhile, I’m still working on the bloody novels!”

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