The sixth season of Game of Thrones made clearer than ever where author George R.R. Martin draws the line at confirming book twists spoiled by the HBO series, but that doesn’t mean the Game of Thrones creator signs off on every adaptational change. Showrunners reveal that Martin has at least a few disagreements with the HBO adjustments, even if he’s “a grown-up and a gentleman about it.”

Digital Spy plucked out a portion of the same UFC Unfiltered interview that saw Game of Thrones showrunners David Benioff and Dan Weiss acknowledging a later start to Season 7 than usual, this time focused on the working relationship with Martin. Game of Thrones has time and time again stated that Martin’s involvement remains loose over the last few years, offering only vague signposts to steer the story, but that his prior experience in TV keeps him from interfering too regularly:

He’d got Emmy nominations before this [show] so he knew how the sausage got made. A lot of authors who have their work adapted have never been part of an adaptation process before and they get really precious about every last thing.

Not to say that George has agreed with everything we’ve done, but by and large, on the grander scale, he gets what you need to do to adapt something and he’s a grown-up and a gentleman about it.

Indeed, Martin has made note on several occasions of HBO’s version killing off or altering characters in was that have major ramifications for his upcoming books, though Benioff and Weiss stayed mum on more immediate twists like Jon Snow’s stabbing:

I don’t know how to give an answer without spoiling something for the books. The books and the series are so different now that I don’t want to say anything that might give away something that he’s going to do.

Certainly a final two seasons could both diverge from and spoil major elements of the saga’s end, but could Martin come to regret any further Game of Thrones alterations?

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