George R.R. Martin ‘Begged’ HBO to Make Game of Thrones 10 Seasons

George R.R. Martin wanted Game of Thrones to go another couple of seasons, and reportedly flew to New York to beg HBO to make it happen. According to Insider, Martin’s agent Paul Haas says in James Andrew Miller’s new book Tinderbox: HBO’s Ruthless Pursuit of New Frontiers that Martin flew to New York to appeal to then- HBO CEO Richard Plepler to do 10 seasons of the series.

It’s not clear when Martin made the trip, though Haas told Miller, “George would fly to New York to have lunch with Plepler, to beg him to do ten seasons of ten episodes because there was enough material for it and to tell him it would be a more satisfying and more entertaining experience.”

The show ultimately went eight seasons and the final season was heavily criticized for its compressed storytelling. Haas said that the decision came down to showrunners D.B. Weiss and David Benioff, saying, “Dan and Dave were tired, rightfully so. They were done, and wanted to move on, so they cut it short and then negotiations became, how many seasons can we stretch this out? Because of course HBO wanted more.”

Haas also noted that Martin began to grow concerned about the show’s deviation from the source material after season five, saying, “George loves Dan and Dave, but after season five, he did start to worry about the path they were going because George knows where the story goes. He started saying, ‘You’re not following my template.’

Of course, part of the issue there was that Martin had not yet (and still hasn’t) finished the A Song of Ice & Fire series, and the show ran out of Martin’s written material during season five, which had to incorporate material from the published books, some material the showrunners knew of from the as-yet-unpublished The Winds of Winter, and original content.

HBO is continuing their Game of Thrones storytelling with Martin, who is co-creating the upcoming prequel series House of the Dragon which will premiere next year.