‘House of the Dragon’ Author Reveals Thoughts on ‘Book Canon’ vs. ‘Show Canon’

Author George R.R. Martin answered some questions about canon in a new interview this week and it has the Game of Thrones fandom in an uproar. Martin acknowledged that his book series A Song of Ice and Fire is going to have a very different set of canonical events than the Game of Thrones TV show did – perhaps more different than he had previously planned. He was less certain about which version of events House of the Dragon aligns with.

Martin was interviewed on The History of Westeros podcast in an episode that was published on Thursday, and he said that questions of canon have been prevalent since Game of Thrones Season 1. He said “a little change in a long narrative can have big changes further on,” referring to the TV show’s removal of some characters from the books. However, he said these “butterfly effect” moments weren’t the only reason for changes on the show. Sometimes the writers or network executives also wanted to make changes.

“We have two canons. We have the show canon, the Game of Thrones canon. And we have the Song of Ice and Fire canon,” Martin said simply. “And in the book canon, obviously, still writing The Winds of Winter, I’m sure you all know that, and then there’s another book beyond that. And as I write them, and I’ve said this in a previous blog post, I always knew that things were gonna be different, but as I’m writing, as the stories are coming alive, and the characters are coming alive, taking me further and further away from the show. So there’s gonna be some very considerable differences, and the book canon is gonna be quite different from the show canon as we get deeper into it.”

He continued: “There are two different canons. Now, because most of these shows that we’re developing, almost all of them are prequels. I think it’s a single canon. Because all of these prequels can lead up to Game of Thrones at the beginning.” Martin seemed to imply that the TV shows will generally adhere to the TV show canon, not the book canon, but his real concern was avoiding further divergences.

“But what I wanna avoid – and I don’t know how many shows are gonna [on the air] – hopefully more than one. But, as I said, we have the book canon and we have the show canon. What I don’t want to happen is that we have 17 show canons. Every different showrunner decides to take it in a different direction. And nothing makes any sense because there’s no consistency.”

In terms of House of the Dragon, Martin pointed out that the question of “canon” was central to the book it’s based on, Fire & Blood. It’s an “imaginary history book” written from the perspective of a Westerosi scholar, and it often cites contradictory in-world sources for its own events, leaving readers uncertain what to believe. However, the TV show does not have that unreliable narrator.

“At some point it hit me: ‘why don’t I give all version?’ Because history is uncertain. I’ll give all versions and it’ll be fun for me,” Martin said. “…but [showrunners Ryan Condal and Miguel Sapochnik], when they’re adapting it, they largely had to make up their minds.”

Of course, Game of Thrones had one of the most famously divisive endings in TV history, and many fans are eager to read the ending of the books and see how Martin’s ending will be different. Some have been hopeful that House of the Dragon will ignore the canonical events of the show, but Martin still seemed to leave that question uncertain in this interview. It could be that the “book ending” will be similar enough that these prequel shows could be grafted onto it without much work of the imagination.

House of the Dragon 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.