HBO’s Worst Game of Thrones Ideas Were This Close to Totally Ruining It

Summary:

• According to the Game of Thrones showrunners, the HBO owners wanted them to shoot the show vertically as short snackable episodes.
• Benioff and Weiss themselves wanted to make a movie trilogy instead of the final two Game of Thrones seasons but their idea was rejected.
• While both of these ideas are terrible, the third path that was followed in the end didn’t exactly satisfy Game of Thrones fans, either.

The Game of Thrones fandom might hate its showrunners, Benioff and Weiss, for rushing and ruining the grand finale, but things aren’t as black-and-white as many think.

Not only did D&D reject their life-time royalties from all GoT-related projects in a noble gesture, but they also fought hard to save Game of Thrones from HBO execs’ most ridiculously terrible ideas.

D&D Saved Game of Thrones from Becoming Tik-Tok Videos…

When the owners of a movie company have nothing to do with the industry, it might result in the most bizarre and disastrous ideas. Game of Thrones, too, suffered from HBO’s then-owners’ boundless creativity; or, rather, Benioff and Weiss suffered from it, having to save the series over and over again from becoming an utter dud.

“Benioff and Weiss <...> weren’t crazy about HBO’s then-owners, AT&T, whose executives once asked whether Game of Thrones could be shot vertically so it would fit on your phone. The company also openly discussed the idea of snackable mini-episodes of the series,” The Wall Street Journal recently reported.

Could you imagine Game of Thrones as short snackable episodes shot vertically?.. Those fellows really tried to turn the world’s biggest show into a series of Tik-Tok videos, and we've been feeling sick ever since learning about it.

…Because D&D Wanted to Ruin Game of Thrones Differently

It’s important to point out, however, that Benioff and Weiss were not just the heroes; they also had some terrible ideas; yes, Johnny, more terrible than what we got in the end. Apparently, D&D also wanted to switch Game of Thrones’ format quite a lot.

Instead of making the last two seasons, Benioff and Weiss wanted to go for the big screens. That’s right, everybody: while we’re out here ranting about only having 13 episodes in the last two series, D&D almost robbed us of those, either! The showrunners saw their grand finale as a movie trilogy but were reminded that “HBO stands for Home Box Office and not Away Box Office.”

So many ways to ruin a good thing, huh. But let’s be honest: would you have preferred the movie trilogy or the short vertical videos path?

Source: The Wall Street Journal