George R. R. Martin’s novels offer clues about the future on Game of Thrones — season four is based largely on the second half of the third book in the series, A Storm of Swords, though it weaves in events and characters from other instalments — but only creators David Benioff and D.B. Weiss know precisely what’s in store.
The show runners finished outlining the series’ fifth season in February and are writing scripts now.
The rapid clip at which they’re moving through the books’ plot has generated deep concern and much speculation — Martin has yet to publish either the sixth or the final instalment in what has long been planned as a seven-novel series, making for the very real possibility that the show could end before the author completes his manuscripts (each of the existing novels in paperback runs roughly between 800 and 1,000 pages).
The Game of Thrones creators, however, are not taking steps to slow the series’ pace or invent more original scenes to delay the point at which they arrive at the end of the narrative Martin has penned.
“I think that would be what kills the show, if we succumbed to that kind of pressure and tried to stretch it out to make it last for longer than it should last,” Benioff said.
They have met with the author to discuss his intended resolution for each of the characters’ arcs. They dismissed rumours that the show could make the jump to the big screen and end with one or more films.
“We’re so in the television show of it all at this point,” Weiss said. “Obviously, there’s something fabulous about epic events on the big screen, but right now we’re thinking about the TV show as a TV show. That’s something that a lot of people would have to agree to before that could become a reality.”
“Season four is about to air, and season five and six we know will be on television, and beyond that is too far out to speculate,” Benioff added.
Martin admitted in a recent interview with Vanity Fair that the pace of the television show’s production schedule was “alarming” but said he hopes to complete his epic saga before it is due to be filmed.
“I’m hopeful that I can NOT let them catch up with me... it might be tight on the last book,” Martin told Vanity Fair.
