‘Game of Thrones’ Fan Petition to Remake Season 8 Reaches 1 Million Signatures

A petition to completely re-shoot the final season of Game of Thrones surpassed 1 million signatures this weekend ahead of the series finale.

Warning! Spoilers for Game of Thrones through Season 8, Episode 5 lie ahead!

Many die-hard Game of Thrones fans have been distraught over the final season. There are various reasons for the outrage, although Dylan D., who started the Change.org petition titled “Remake Game of Thrones Season 8 with competent writers,” cites bad writing.

“David Benioff and D.B. Weiss have proven themselves to be woefully incompetent writers when they have no source material (i.e. the books) to fall back on,” he wrote. “This series deserves a final season that makes sense. Subvert my expectations and make it happen, HBO!”

The petition took off, garnering over 1.06 million signatures at the time of publication. It has also gained widespread attention, with many fans and critics discussing it on social media and arguing over whether it could have any effect. Some took it more seriously than others, but on Friday, Dylan posted an update admitting that he never expected it to get much traction.

“I haven’t heard from anyone HBO-related. I don’t think people can reasonably expect HBO to completely remake the season, or any part of this particular series,” he wrote. He added that the idea of the petition was more to send “a message… of frustration and disappointment at its core.”

In that post, Dylan also elaborated more on his own position on the series, saying that he was more disappointed in the pacing and execution of the events than the plot itself. He acknowledged that Benioff and Weiss were working off of outlines revealed to them by author George R.R. Martin, so the books will probably play out the same. However, they will take more care in getting there.

Finally, Dylan offered his apologies to the actors, producers and crew members who may have been hurt by his tongue-in-cheek petition.

“They deserve all the accolades they can get and this petition is not a comment on their contributions to the show,” he wrote.

Many online pundits have condemned the petition, and other online campaigns like it, saying that the audience must accept what they get from creators, otherwise art cannot truly be self-expression. Some even encouraged outraged fans to go out and write their own stories if they want to see satisfying endings that badly.

On the other hand, much of the fan outrage stems from an April interview when Benioff and Weiss confirmed that it was their choice to shorten the final two seasons. They admitted that HBO offered them all the time and resources they might need to end the show right, but that they had settled on a 73-hour long series.

Some feel that it is not fair for this seemingly arbitrary decision to abbreviate the series that defined TV for this decade, especially as Benioff and Weiss move on to huge projects like their upcoming Star Wars trilogy.

The Game of Thrones series finale airs on Sunday, May 19 at 9 p.m. ET on HBO.