Game of Thrones will enter new territory for season 6 going away from George RR Martin’s source material for the first time but the show runners say this might be the best work they’ve done yet…
By Damon Martin — Editor/Lead Writer
There’s an air of mystery and excitement surrounding the new season of Game of Thrones not only because the series is one of the most popular shows on television, but for the first time ever, the writers and producers will be venturing into completely new territory away from the books written by author George R.R. Martin.
Game of Thrones has veered away from Martin’s source material throughout the history of the show, but they’ve largely remained loyal to the frame work he laid out in the first five books in the ‘A Song of Ice and Fire’ series.
Unfortunately, Martin hasn’t been able to keep pace with the show and with the next book — The Winds of Winter — not slated to come out until sometime in 2016, the show runners behind Game of Thrones had no choice but to move forward without a book to follow.
And according to Game of Thrones co-creators and show runners David Benioff and Dan Weiss, this might be the best season yet.
“The whole season (is compelling),” Benioff said recently. “Dan and I talk about this a lot. This is not us trying to hype it. Usually there’s an episode or two we’re kind of nervous about, that didn’t turn out as well as we hoped. This season there is not a weak episode. We had great directors who knew what they were doing, paired with excellent [directors of photography]. We thought at the script stage it might be our strongest season.
“Then the episodes came in better than we hoped. We’re always reluctant to say it’s ‘the best season yet’ because so much of that is in the eyes of the beholder. And Dan and I are so close to it that it’s impossible to be unbiased. But that’s my sense – watching them all together now, this is the best one we’ve done. It’s also the one I’m proudest of, because it was the hardest.”
Loyal book readers might be concerned that Game of Thrones is going to completely veer away from Martin’s original material, but that’s not exactly the case.
A few summers ago with Game of Thrones rapidly catching up to Martin’s written work, Benioff and Weiss took a trip to Sante Fe, New Mexico to meet with the author for several days to map out the rest of his vision and the end game for each of the characters.
How closely they stick to that formula is still a mystery but it appears that Game of Thrones season 6 will continue the story as Martin intended or at least as much as the show would have followed The Winds of Winter once its finally released.
Game of Thrones season 6 debuts on HBO on Sunday night, April 24 and don’t forget to follow along as we recap the entire season from start to finish!
H/T: EW
