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Game of Thrones Showrunners Are Aiming For Breaking Bad Finale Comparisons

April 9, 2019 | Posted by Jeremy Thomas
Game of Thrones Season 8 Tyrion Image Credit: HBO

The showrunners of Game of Thrones have some high aspirations for the show’s finale. During an interview with EW, D.B. Weiss and David Benioff talked about the show’s final episode and said that they were looking to accomplish what Breaking Bad did.

Weiss said, “We want people to love it. It matters a lot to us. We’ve spent 11 years doing this. We also know no matter what we do, even if it’s the optimal version, that a certain number of people will hate the best of all possible versions. There is no version where everybody says, ‘I have to admit, I agree with every other person on the planet that this is the perfect way to do this’ — that’s an impossible reality that doesn’t exist.”

Benioff added, “From the beginning, we’ve talked about how the show would end. A good story isn’t a good story if you have a bad ending. Of course we worry. It’s also part of the fun of any show that people love arguing about it. I loved the way David Chase ended The Sopranos [with its surprising cut to black]. I was one of those people who thought my TV had gone out. I got up and was checking the wires, unable to believe my cable had gone out in the most important moment of my favorite TV series. I think that was the best of all possible endings for that show. But a lot of people hated it. I’ve gotten into a lot of arguments with people about why that was a great ending, but people felt legitimately cheated and that’s their right to feel that way, just as it’s my right to feel like they’re idiots. I’ll always remember being on the subway headed to Yankees Stadium a couple days after the Sopranos ending aired. And there were like three different conversations in the subway and they were all about the exact same thing.”

“I remember talking with [director] Alan Taylor, who worked on our show and The Sopranos, whether “Don’t Stop Believin’” was a song David Chase liked or whether it’s a song David Chase loathed but thought Tony Soprano would like. And there’s not even an answer to that,” Wiess said. “I’m hoping we get the Breaking Bad [finale] argument where it’s like, “Is that an A or an A+?” I want that to be the argument. I just wish we found better directors for it.”

Game of Thrones begins its final six episodes on Sunday on HBO.