Regardless of how you feel about how the climax of Game of Thrones ultimately came together, it’d be foolish to not at least acknowledge that there are reasons the HBO show became one of the biggest televisual events of the last decade. At a recent talk for the Austin Film Festival, however, it seems that D.B. Weiss and David Benioff admitted that they were not among them.
At the Austin Film Festival this weekend, Weiss and Benioff spoke about Game of Thrones in what was one of their first public panel appearances since the series came to an end earlier this year.
While the talk only really danced around the reaction to how the series came together, it largely focused on how Game of Thrones got made in the first place. Turns out, how it got made seemed to be down to Benioff and Weiss being able to get away with a lot of learning on the go.
[referenced url=” thumb=” title=” excerpt=”]
The most prominent report from the event came from a now semi-viral Twitter thread from user ForArya, who revealed what appeared to be an incredibly frank display from Benioff and Weiss about how thoroughly unprepared they were to guide what would become one of the smash-hit TV phenoms of recent history.
They acknowledge that they have no idea why after such a dismal pilot why they went forward. “Everything we could make a mistake in, we did.” Script, casting, costume.
They think HBO went forward bc they had a lot of foreign pre-sales on the series.
— Needle & Pen (@ForArya) October 26, 2019
It’s important to note that the discussion is interpreted through the lens of one account, and on Twitter it’s hard to estimate tone and intent when you’re dealing with transcription, and with only so many characters per tweet. But even then, some of Weiss and Benioff’s surprisingly frank remarks”especially in the wake of their last minute no-show at San Diego Comic-Con earlier this year, which was in the immediate aftermath of the season eight finale”are honestly shocking to read.
David is describing the pre-meeting with GRRM who was questioning their bona fides and “we didn’t really have any.” We had never done TV and we didn’t have any. We don’t know why he trusted us with his life’s work.”
— Needle & Pen (@ForArya) October 26, 2019
They apparently kept being surprised at their experience, and not just through its George R.R. Martin”were still, apparently, largely unsure about anything they were doing. This includes understanding the characters they wrote (something they mostly left to the actors inhabiting those roles, in earlier seasons), or even production details like considering bringing women or people of colour into the writing process.
He said that they wouldn’t hire writers unless they were willing to be part of the production team.
(Vanessa wrote the Shape of Water.)
— Needle & Pen (@ForArya) October 26, 2019
The whole thread is worth a read for some particularly trenchant insight from the creatives, touching on how the duo treated fan feedback on the show as it went on”and reactions to how the series ended; the role of violence in the series; and even the way earliest seasons of the show gave an off-hand treatment to the fantastical elements of the book.
Dan wanted to remove as many fantasy elements as possible bc “we didn’t just want to appeal to that type of fan.” They wanted to expand the fan base to people beyond the fantasy fan base to “mothers, NFL players”…
— Needle & Pen (@ForArya) October 26, 2019
There’s even a truly disturbing story in there about how apparently an actual baby was put on a block of ice for the season four scene showing the Night King corrupting a wildling infant. Even that, along with many other remarks the duo made throughout the talk, seems to have an underlying thread that Benioff and Weiss are largely uncertain of why the things that worked about Game of Thrones worked, and why the things that were heavily critiqued didn’t completely undo the show’s popularity.
The moderator is asking them about their comments acknowledging they didn’t understand the characters, and the extra minutes helped them understand the characters better. ????
— Needle & Pen (@ForArya) October 26, 2019
The shocking nature of the revelations are almost refreshing in the stark bluntness of them. It seems Game of Thrones essentially happened through some sheer dumb luck, on the part of both Benioff and Weiss and executives at HBO (plus the hard work of a lot of people in front and behind the camera), before going on to reshape the television of the 2010s and perhaps even beyond for good measure.
They decided to pitch the pilot, and not the series, in a way that was understandable to folks they were pitching. Then they did a vague overview of the series, with not a lot of details.
“There was no good way to summarize the story. So we didn’t.”
— Needle & Pen (@ForArya) October 26, 2019
That Star Wars trilogy sure is gonna be fun, isn’t it?