George R.R. Martin begged HBO to make 10 seasons of Game of Thrones after ending was too abrupt

Two years after the end of Game of Thrones Season 8, fans are still dissatisfied with the ending of the show. Many people think that Game of Thrones ended too early and some main plots were cut short, making the ending seem abrupt. Author George R.R. Martin also agreed.

According to Insider, "Tinderbox: HBO's Ruthless Pursuit of New Frontiers" is a new book by journalist James Andrew Miller, which details how Martin flew to New York to "beg" HBO to shoot a ten-season series.

"George flew to New York for lunch (with former HBO CEO Richard Plepler) and begged him to do 10 seasons of 10 episodes because he had enough material and told him it would be a more satisfying and more entertaining experience," Martin's agent Paul Haas said in the book.

According to Haas, Martin also worried that HBO wasn’t following his template for storytelling: “George loved Daniel Weiss and David Benioff, the showrunners on Game of Thrones, but after Season 5, he did start to worry about the direction they were going to go, because George knew where the story was going. He started saying, ‘You’re not following my model.’”

The final season of Game of Thrones contained several shocking twists and many fans were disappointed with how other major plot points were handled, but today in 2021, HBO is still defending the show's ending.

"Of course, if there was an extra episode or two, that would have helped, and I would have done two more seasons! But I believe that if you look at the entire show, not just the last few episodes, you'll see that the opportunities she had were not what she deserved and were planned," said Casey Bloys, HBO's chief content officer, in the book.

Martin was equally optimistic about the ending, saying, "I hope it lasts ten years, which I guess will give us more time to wrap it up in the next few seasons. But that might just be because I'm still trying to wrap it up in these books."