‘Game of Thrones’ Showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss Break Silence on Final Season After Backlash

Game of Thrones showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss gave their first official interview since the end of their acclaimed show this week, addressing the backlash to their work. The two writers sat down with Japan’s Star Channel, discussing their errors, triumphs and their reaction to the grand finale.

Season 8 of Game of Thrones sparked a huge uproar among fans, which is still going to this day. Many felt the show’s pacing and plot were unforgivable, while others were more horrified by the fan reaction than the show itself.

Whatever, the case, the brunt of complaints fell on Benioff and Weiss’ shoulders, so it is no surprise that the writers have kept to themselves all summer. Now, in their first new interview, they reflected on the legacy of their global hit show.

“To have [the show] become what it became, and to be able to spend not one year or two years but more than ten years of our lives making it at this level, with [all] the people [behind the camera] that we got to work with…” Weiss said, trailing off.

“We didn’t have any idea that the show would be so big,” Benioff put in.

In terms of Season 8 itself, the showrunners did not directly discuss the most outraged responses, which included a viral petition to do their work over again with “competent writers.” However, Benioff seemed to refer to the criticism as a whole when he half-jokingly addressed the infamous coffee cup cameo in “The Last of the Starks.”

“I think in Persian rugs it’s tradition that you make a little mistake when making the rug, because only God can do anything perfect, so for us I guess that just was our [mistake],” he said.

“That’s why I put the coffee cup there. Conscious, concerted statement of our imperfection,” Weiss joked.

“We were concentrating so much on Daenerys and Jon Snow that we just didn’t see this coffee cup right in the middle,” Benioff added. “So, at first I couldn’t believe it, and then it was embarrassment; ‘how did we not see this coffee cup in the middle of the shot?’. And then, eventually, it was just funny. This one is just a mistake, and it’s kind of funny to us now.”

Finally, the two showrunners discussed the deluge of Emmy nominations their show received, even after the mixed reactions to Season 8. In this case, they said, they were as surprised as many fans were.

“It was kind of surprising? I did not know that we expected [that]. At least in my mind, I thought that the [previous] season would have been the peak and that we would’ve ended up with maybe a couple less, at best,” Weiss said. “I felt very happy for all of our team of people, all of the actors and all of the crew who got recognized. Each made us feel really proud of them and happy for them, because we know first-hand how hard they worked; we saw it every day for many years.”

Benioff added that the Emmy nominations were good news because, if nothing else, it got the tight-knit cast and crew back together for at least one more night of partying.

“Ten of the actors are nominated, and so many of the crew members, so it’s just a great excuse for everyone to get drunk again,” he said.