‘House Of The Dragon’ showrunner insists they remained “respectful” to George R.R. Martin’s text after criticisms

nme.com:

House Of The Dragon has defended the show against George R.R. Martin’s criticisms, insisting they have “serviced” his book and remained “respectful”.The second season of the Game Of Thrones prequel series, which is based on Martin’s 2018 book Fire & Blood, wrapped up last month on HBO.

A third season is currently being written and expected to go into production next year. Showrunner Ryan Condal has also confirmed that the show will conclude after its fourth season.Earlier this week, Martin had decried the “toxic” changes to his source material in the last series, arguing that it “weakened” his original story.Now, during an appearance on the official House Of The Dragon podcast, showrunner Ryan Condal has responded to Martin’s critiques, arguing that they have done what they can to be “faithful” to Fire & Blood.“The way we approach this is we are constantly balancing the need to tell a broadly appealing fantasy story and also servicing this book that we revere very greatly in Fire & Blood, and rendering an adaptation that remains very faithful to it and respectful to it,” he said.“And sometimes we will not do exactly the thing the audience expects or what is in the text.