Lannisters Pay No Debts: GoT Creators Rejected Life-Long Franchise Royalties

Summary:

• The final season of Game of Thrones felt rushed, and many fans assumed that the showrunners wanted to wrap it up quickly out of greed.
• In reality, David Benioff and Dan Weiss rejected the contractually guaranteed royalties for all the existing and future spin-offs to Game of Thrones.
• Regardless of their motivation, it was a noble and unique decision since royalties are the main source of income for most creative people.

For creative people, royalties are the main income source: writers, directors, authors, showrunners — all of them receive a certain percentage of their works’ earnings. When it comes to huge franchises like Game of Thrones, cutting off royalties even sounds bizarre as it’s virtually guaranteed wealth; still, D&D did just that.

GoT Fans Accused D&D of Greed

While Game of Thrones used to be the world’s biggest TV show sensation back in the day, most fans agree that it aged rather poorly. The first few seasons were largely considered the peak of television, but the finale of the series turned out to be a disappointment for many: it was rushed, unsatisfying, and overall incoherent.

Many fans took David Benioff and Dan Weiss’s approach to the Game of Thrones’s finale almost personally. The showrunners were accused of many things, including inability to do their job and — believe it or not — greed. The latter statement has always been questionable since ending the world’s biggest show isn’t the best way to make money.

Today, we have actual proof that whatever motivated D&D to wrap up Game of Thrones so abruptly, it definitely wasn’t greed.

D&D Rejected Royalties from GoT Spin-Offs

Thanks to being the showrunners of Game of Thrones, David Benioff and Dan Weiss had some phenomenal contracts. Among other things, they were promised, essentially, free money until the end of their lives: HBO guaranteed them royalties from all the Game of Thrones spin-offs in the foreseeable future!

That’s one handsome deal, and it came with huge checks. But guess what?

Benioff and Weiss rejected the money!

“For us, if our name is on it, especially that, while being completely detached and uninvolved, it felt like the strain that would come with that hands-off approach — with its success or failure or anything in between — was not worth it,” Weiss told THR.

Such a noble approach doesn’t only sound ridiculous to you and us; the HBO executives expected anything but that reply, too. Benioff recalls that the company’s lawyer was “kind of confused” when the showrunners announced their decision. It’s not every day that you see people reject such riches without batting an eye!

It’s safe to say that D&D are not the greedy folks fans believed them to be after Game of Thrones’s underwhelming finale.

What Do Fans Say About D&D Rejecting the Money?

The baffling revelation about the GoT showrunners refusing to receive spin-off royalties definitely changed most fans’ attitudes to them. While no one rushed to praise the original show’s finale, people were impressed with the gesture nonetheless.

“It's something that basically never happens but I respect them for this. They had an opportunity to get free money from HOTD, Dunk and Egg, and all future GoT shows, but they didn't want to. I don't know if there is anyone in Hollywood that would reject this,” Reddit user mamula1 wrote.

Some others believe that the showrunners might have been discouraged from taking the royalties by the backlash they received after the Game of Thrones finale.

“I don’t blame them. After the public bashing they got, they probably wanted nothing to do with anything else GoT-related, especially if it isn’t received well. I feel bad for them bc while I too have final GoT season complaints, <...> people forget how much good they did up until then. Not saying we can’t critique but damn,” hawkins338 added.

Whatever David Benioff and Dan Weiss’s real motivation might have been, it doesn’t matter: such an offer is borderline impossible to resist, especially when you’re not required to do anything for it. The very fact that the showrunners opted out of free royalties from the seemingly numerous upcoming spin-off shows is impressive.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter