Posted by Empress Eve | July 29th, 2011 at 9:43 pm
The first season of the HBO series Game Of Thrones was a great success. Now that the debut season is over, fans are wondering what HBO has planned for the hit series. Will each season be based on one book of George R.R. Martin‘s Song Of Ice and Fire novel series? Will HBO adapt all of Martin’s current and future novels in the series? And more importantly, will HBO cancel the series before its time?
HBO Co-President Richard Plepler and HBO Programming President Michael Lombardo fielded these types of questions this week at a press conference with the Television Critics Association. According to HitFix, Lombardo said at the conference, “I can promise you that we won’t stop it before it’s ready to stop” with Plepler stating, “We told George [R.R. Martin] we’d go as long as he kept writing.”
Maybe Plepler thinks they show will go as long as Martin writes, but Lombardo is clearly more guarded about the situation. You can read a lot into his words — who decides when it’s “ready to stop”?
Later on at the conference, Lombardo states:
“I don’t know where the show for us ends as opposed to the books…. I think the challenge for us is always, how long do the creators want to stay with the show?”…. “Dan [Weiss] and David [Benioff] have signed on for a couple years and we’re going to have that conversations with them every couple years,” Lombardo adds.
At least we know Season 2 of the show is a go and that the showrunners are contracted for a few years. Season 1 had 10 episodes and it looks like the network plans to keep each season at that number. “If we could do 12 episodes of a show like ‘Game of Thrones,’ we would,” Lombardo said, adding that “there is no way they could physically do more than 10,” without sacrificing quality. He also said he has not told the creators that they have to do a “story-per-season.”
It sounds to me like the network execs know they have a hit series on their hands — it’s received 13 Emmy nominations, including one for Peter Dinklage for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series for his role as Tyrion Lannister — and would love to keep it going as long as the viewership is up. Once viewers lose interest or the showrunners abandon ship or Martin stops writing — or a combination of these elements — HBO can pull the plug. So basically, Game of Thrones is in the same boat as every other series.
Read the entire rundown of the conference, which references other HBO series as well, over at HitFix.
Television Critics Association is going to have for HBO Co-President Richard Plepler and for HBO Programming President Michael Lombardo,
Students of the Unusual™ comic cover used with permission of 3BoysProductions
The Mercuri Bros.™ comic cover used with permission of Prodigal Son Press
