Recently, the question of how much longer the acclaimed HBO fantasy drama ‘Game of Thrones’ could continue came up and the show’s co-creators David Benioff and D.B. Weiss revealed that they know how the story ends and have planned for seven or eight seasons. But at the season four premiere in New York City last night, George R.R. Martin shared that the show could potentially end with a major motion picture.
The Hollywood Reporter caught up with the best-selling author at the star-studded event at the Museum of National History earlier this week and he discussed the possibility of wrapping up the series based on his popular ‘A Song of Fire and Ice’ novels with a movie:
“It all depends on how long the main series runs. Do we run for seven years? Do we run for eight? Do we run for 10? The books get bigger and bigger (in scope). It might need a feature to tie things up, something with a feature budget, like $100 million for two hours. Those dragons get real big, you know.”
As of right now, Martin has five of the planned seven books completed. Although he has a plan to keep his pace ahead of the show, there’s no guarantee on when those last books will finally hit shelves. Since the young actors could potentially age out of their roles before the books are finished, there’s a very good chance that they might need to pull a ‘Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World’ and finish the onscreen adaptation before the original source material has concluded. While this option certainly isn’t ideal, it’s definitely possible to do since the showrunners know how Martin plans on ending the series.
Meanwhile, another option for a ‘Game of Thrones’ movie could lie in the three prequel novellas ‘Tales of Dunk and Egg’, which are set 90 years prior to the storyline in Westeros featuring the fight for the Iron Throne. Martin suggests that these three stories could be the basis of a film, but there has been talk of HBO adapting them into a TV show already. Besides these novellas, the writer says that he has “about a dozen more” stories that could work for a movie as well.
What do you think about ‘Game of Thrones’ getting the big screen treatment to end the series? If a movie were to be made, how many seasons do you think that they will get through before Westeros heads to the local cinema? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
‘Game of Thrones’ starring Peter Dinklage, Lena Headey, Emilia Clarke, Kit Harington, Natalie Dormer, Maisie Williams, and Sophie Turner, among many others, returns to HBO on Sunday, April 6, 2014 at 9:00pm.
