The boss of HBO has commented on what went down between Game of Thrones author George R.R. Martin and House of the Dragon showrunner Ryan Condal, after Martin described their relationship as “worse than rocky” and “abysmal.”
While Martin’s displeasure with House of the Dragon’s ongoing story development was nothing new, a profile piece published by The Hollywood Reporter revealed eye-opening new detail from Martin on the breakdown of his relationship with Condal — and the extent to which HBO executives had to manage the pair behind the scenes of the show’s production.
Martin’s unhappiness with Condal appears to have reached its zenith during a contentious Zoom call where the showrunner laid out his vision for House of the Dragon’s third season. Martin said he responded to Condal’s plan with numerous objections, and ultimately stated: “This is not my story any longer.”
“I hired Ryan,” Martin said, reflecting on happier times. “I thought Ryan and I were partners. And we were all through the first season. I would read early drafts of the scripts. I would give notes. He would change some things. It was working really well — I thought.”
The profile piece noted an initial display of support by Martin for Condal towards the end of Season 1, when the latter had a falling out with his fellow co-showrunner on the series, Miguel Sapochnik. Martin says Condal asked for his support, which he gave, and Sapochnik departed the show shortly afterward.
“Then we got into Season 2, and he basically stopped listening to me,” Martin continued, discussing how his relationship with Condal began to deteriorate. “I would give notes, and nothing would happen. Sometimes he would explain why he wasn’t doing it. Other times, he would tell me, ‘Oh, OK, yeah, I’ll think about that.’
“It got worse and worse, and I began to get more and more annoyed. Finally, it got to a point where I was told by HBO that I should submit all my notes to them and they would give Ryan our combined notes.”
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This then led to the now-infamous and swiftly-deleted blog post penned by Martin in September 2024, which publicly criticized House of the Dragon’s direction and said more “toxic” changes from his books were to come. While offering praise for the series’ writing, direction and acting, Martin slammed the plot decision to kill off a particular character and went into detail as to why he disagreed with the choice. At the time, Martin also suggested Condal had gone back on a promise to balance the change with another plot point — that had then seemingly been abandoned.
Within hours, the blog post disappeared from Martin’s website, and HBO had issued a statement supporting Condal while attempting to lower the temperature. In the profile piece, Martin said the blog post disappeared after HBO contacted Martin’s manager, who had Martin’s assistant remove the post while Martin himself was asleep.
“I would’ve put it back up, but then I would’ve looked like an idiot,” Martin said of the incident. “And 80% of it was praise, but that’s not what people focused on.”
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Now, in an interview with Deadline, Casey Bloys, Chairman and CEO of HBO and HBO Max Content, acknowledged the turmoil behind the scenes, waved away its impact, and expressed support for both Martin’s continued involvement in HBO’s Game of Thrones work, and Condal’s work on House of the Dragon.
“Like any good American family, I would prefer that our dysfunction stays behind closed doors,” Bloys began. “But here we are. What I would say is George introduced us to Ryan as the person that he thought would be the best to create House the Dragon. And I will say Ryan has been an excellent showrunner and a really great partner and collaborator, so we embrace his vision and his creative choices, or we wouldn’t have done it.”
Bloys then confirmed that HBO still has an overall deal with Martin, despite his high-profile and very public criticism of House of the Dragon.
“Listen, I consider it great to have George as the architect of this world,” Bloys said. “I mean, think about what he has created, the world, the families, the battles, all of the history, it’s pretty extraordinary. George is a great partner for us to have. The idea that he is going to agree with every creator or showrunner that is either developing or producing, two artists are not always going to agree. So, some of this comes with the territory.”
In November, HBO announced A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms Season 2 and House of the Dragon Season 4 as part of a Marvel-style roadmap update for Game of Thrones TV series. House of the Dragon Season 3, meanwhile, debuts in summer 2026, with Season 4 set for 2028. Season 4 will be its last.
Bloys confirmed that Martin “definitely took a step back” in terms of his involvement in Season 3, and has focused on A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms instead. Bloys insisted he was “thrilled” with Season 3 creatively, as he is with Seasons 1 and 2.
“If you remind yourself of the Rotten Tomato stores of the first two seasons, it’s 87%,” he said. “This has been a very successful show for us. So, again, I will say I’m thrilled with what Ryan has done, he’s been a great collaborator with us.”
For his part, Condal has chosen not to comment further on the situation, but has pointed to a previously-reported statement he gave which claimed that Martin had become “unwilling to acknowledge the practical issues at hand in a reasonable way.”
With House of the Dragon coming to an end in 2028, thoughts turn to what’s next for HBO and Game of Thrones. A proposed Game of Thrones sequel series starring Arya Stark is reportedly in the early stages of development, seemingly to replace previous plans to develop a spinoff based around Jon Snow. We also have word that animation icon Genndy Tartakovsky (Primal, Samurai Jack, Hotel Transylvania) is attached to the long-gestating Game of Thrones animated spinoff series 9 Voyages, which will follow the adventures of Lord Corlys Velaryon, aka The Sea Snake. The character is played in House of the Dragon by actor Steve Toussaint.
Photo by Tristar Media/WireImage.
Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
