Showrunner Ryan Condal Says Martin’s Criticism Was “Disappointing,” Explains How the Collaboration Fell Apart

House of the Dragon is a spin-off series that stems from George R.R. Martin’s Game of Thrones franchise. In an exploration of the fictional universe’s past, the series has mostly been a successful outing for HBO, receiving praise from critics and most fans.

And while there will always be those who dislike the show, the series – as you might recall – became the center of a major controversy when Martin himself criticized the show in a lengthy blog post in which he listed all the issues.

It was a major talking point at one moment, but the series is continuing strong, and with the production of Season 3 currently ongoing, there is speculation of a fourth season being in the works, although nothing has been confirmed officially.

In light of the start of the third season’s production, showrunner Ryan Condal talked to the press and in a lengthy interview, he discussed the impact of Martin’s blog post. He commented how he had not read it, but that he found it “disappointing“, going on to explain that he and Martin initially had a very fruitful collaboration.

“I made every effort to include George in the adaptation process. I really did. Over years and years. And we really enjoyed a mutually fruitful, I thought, really strong collaboration for a long time,” Condal explained. But the future was not the same.

“But at some point, as we got deeper down the road, he just became unwilling to acknowledge the practical issues at hand in a reasonable way,” he said, continuing, “I think as a showrunner, I have to keep my practical producer hat on and my creative writer, lover-of-the-material hat on at the same time. At the end of the day, I just have to keep marching not only the writing process forward, but also the practical parts of the process forward for the sake of the crew, the cast and for HBO, because that’s my job.”

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