‘House of the Dragon’ Author Has More ‘Creative Influence’ Than on ‘Game of Thrones,’ But Not ‘Creative Control’

Author George R.R. Martin had some interesting commentary on his own creative involvement in House of the Dragon in a new interview this week. Martin was a guest on The History of Westeros podcast where he was asked about his creative input on this new show compared to his input on Game of Thrones. He said that he has more “influence” here, but still no “control.”

Near the start of the interview, Martin remarked on how he wishes more fans understood the complexities of the TV industry before they bring grievances straight to him. He also pointed out that on Game of Thrones, his official title was “co-executive producer,” while on House of the Dragon his title is “executive producer” – though he is still not a day-to-day “showrunner.” Asked about “creative control,” he said: “I don’t have any creative ‘control,’ as you say. That is the hardest thing to get in Hollywood.”

Martin continued by saying that authors were only given forms of “creative control” in extreme circumstances, such as that of J.K. Rowling who entertained a bidding war for the film rights to her Harry Potter franchise. In that case, she was able to negotiate for “script approval” privileges, according to Martin. As popular as A Song of Ice and Fire is, that is not the case for him.

“Hollywood will give you money a lot easier than they’ll give you creative control,” he said, laughing. “You can go to negotiations and say yes, I will thank you for paying me 8 million dollars, but I would like creative control as well. And they will say, how about 10 million? They would rather give millions of dollars than any creative control.”

“What I do have is influence, I have creative influence,” Martin continued, “but that depends largely on the relationship between myself and the showrunners and so forth. I mean, I can make points, I can argue and they can listen, but if they decide not to listen, then you know, I can persuade them. I don’t have the power to hire or to fire. I don’t have the power to dictate things, but what I have, if they listen to me and I can be fairly persuasive and I know this material pretty well, so, there’s that something and it’s always changing.”

Martin then compared his creative influence on Game of Thrones and House of the Dragon – a comparison that may be interesting to fans who were disappointed in the first show’s ending. He said: “You know, I had a lot of input in the beginning of Game of Thrones, partly cause I had these books out there. But at a certain point, as the show went on I found I had less and less influence until by the end, I really didn’t even know what was going on. Some of these things I watched like everybody else, and ‘oh, okay.’”

“Now at the moment, I’m very happy with House of the Dragon. It’s a very faithful adaptation. Yeah, there’s some changes, but I have a great relationship with Ryan Condal and Miguel Sapochnik,” he added.

Martin has said on several occasions that he was disappointed to see Game of Thrones brought to an end so soon. He hoped that it would go to at least 10 seasons to finish telling his story, but showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss had the final decision. To this day, many fans blame those two in particular for the show’s lackluster ending.

Hopefully House of the Dragon will continue to stay true to the books as give its stories the time they need to breathe. The series airs on Sundays at 9 p.m. ET on HBO and HBO Max. Martin’s books are available now in print, digital and audiobook formats.