With HBO‘s massively popular fantasy/drama "Game Of Thrones" kicking off the fourth season in just few weeks, there’s a lot to look forward to. But for the writers behind the show, who already know what’s going to happen across the next batch of episodes, not only are they planning ahead, they are preparing for the inevitable finale.
The April issue of Vanity Fair contains a feature on the show, and inside, the writers reveal that they see the show only running until a seventh or eighth season at most. And more crucially, they want to ensure they can go out on top. "Last year we went out to Santa Fe for a week to sit down with him [George R.R. Martin] and just talk through where things are going, because we don’t know if we are going to catch up and where exactly that would be," David Benioff said. "If you know the ending, then you can lay the groundwork for it. And so we want to know how everything ends. We want to be able to set things up. So we just sat down with him and literally went through every character."
"It doesn’t just keep on going because it can. I think the desire to milk more out of it is what would eventually kill it, if we gave in to that," D.B. Weiss added.
But a crucial component will be novelist Martin himself, who provides the direction for the characters and plots, and he admits that while he generally knows where things are going, nothing is set in stone. "I can give them the broad strokes of what I intend to write, but the details aren’t there yet. I’m hopeful that I can not let them catch up with me," he stated.
Thoughts? And let’s not forget Peter Dinklage has already inked a deal for a new HBO pilot, “The Beasts of Valhalla,” with lensing tentatively slated to start in 2016, so it seems even cast members are making plans for after the finale. "Game Of Thrones" returns on April 6th.
