A Song of Ice and Fire/Game of Thrones Spoiler-Filled Discussion

I think the first four seasons, likely covering the first three books and some of the fourth book, will stick pretty closely to the books. After that things could veer off. HBO's head honcho has said that the show will definitely come to a proper conclusion, but he parsed his words very carefully and basically said it could be a conclusion that doesn't follow the timescale of the books. The producers know the ending Martin intends, so it must be unnerving for Martin that they could get to his ending by a shorter route on the show if he takes too long with the final two books.

 

I wouldn't want to see it end there but if they had to end it early, I think Book 3 would be the most logical place.

 

Then the series would be a spoiler for the books instead of the other way around...? That'd be odd. Given GRRM's close association w/this production I find that implausible. Given the event that the new book was his publishers would be apoplectic. Perhaps the popularity of the series will spur him to spare us a little more of his valuable time for writing to ensure he beats them to the finish line!

 

Thanks for that, I'll check these out.

 

Given how many people now have a big financial stake in the series, I think he'll be under enormous pressure to finish the series in a timely fashion. In fact if he's stuggling to stay on target it wouldn't surprise me if he secretly used a co-writer to speed things up.

 

Having a proper Editor and maybe a co-writer probably would have helped AFFC and ADWD in the first place.

 

HBO has released a bunch of stills, which you can see here.

Also, Martin said in an interview with SFX that he thinks HBO will catch up with him in about four years.

 

That sounds about right, if they split ASOS into two seasons. Maybe that will motivate him to get his ass in gear and finish the last two books.


Or not.

 

Here's the full quote from SFX:

I don't know he arrives at the four-year estimate if he's banking on the third, fourth and fifth books each being split into two seasons. That would give him considerably longer - unless he thinks HBO will start airing more than one season per year. Anyway, I don't think Feast and Dance will get two seasons each, or at least not without the producers reshaping the material to a very significant degree.

 

Well, since they take place mostly at the same time, I would imagine they'll be combining the events of the books and the entirety of four and five will take two seasons, with each season being half of both books.

 

ASOS doesn't need two seasons. I agree with OdoWanKenobi that AFFC/ADWD will probably be combined over two seasons, rather than Season Four being AFFC and Season Five being ADWD.

 

It looks like ASOS is going to get two seasons, although I think those seasons will feature a fair amount of material from AFFC.

They'll definitely merge the rest of AFFC and ADWD into chronoligical order, unless they decide to veer off dramatically at that point.

 

Wow, those are some great character shots.

I particularly like the Brienne and Theon ones - but they are all good.

 

Wow, when they first announced the actress cast as Brienne, I thought she didn't fit at all. After that picture, though, I think all of my fears have been assuaged. Davos also looks like he stepped right out of my imagination. Stannis will still take some getting used to. I always imagined him a more imposing figure.

 

Great stills! I agree with whoever said asos would be two seasons with a little of AFfc sprinkled in as well

 

I hardly think HBO or many of the actors want to commit to a decade long show. ASoS actually has a lot of great content in it and is worth the split but AFFC and ADwD have plenty of fat to trim and can easily be two seasons and still have room for extra content from the previous and later book in there, even though together their page count is quite a bit higher than ASoS.

 

Comparing those new character portraits. I think the actor playing Davos looks like a much better Stannis, than the Stannis they actually cast. At least the way I always imagined Stannis to look.

 

Yeah, I agree.

By the way, Maisie Williams (Arya) chose to actually have her hair cut short rather than opt for a wig.

Edit to add: I just came across this parody of a George R.R. Martin impersonator reading children's stories with a Martin twist:

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=oLMydhMqWDQ#![/yt]

 

No, I don't think the Davos actor would work as Stannis. Remember that Robert was the eldest brother. Not Stannis. Stannis is not as old as one tends to imagine with the unflattering descriptions in the book.