'We want people to love it': 'Game of Thrones' creators on finale
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The creators of global smash television series “Game of Thrones” say they knew how they would end the show five years ago, and are anxious that fans will like it.
“We want people to love it. It matters a lot to us,” said D.B. Weiss, who along with David Benioff created the series that is based on the novels of George R.R. Martin.
“We also know that no matter what we do, even if it’s the optimal version, that a certain number of people will hate the best of all possible versions,” Weiss told Entertainment Weekly in an interview that was published on Tuesday.
The final six episodes of HBO’s award-winning medieval fantasy series set among warring families in the fictional kingdom of Westeros launches on Sunday and concludes on May 19.
Weiss said he and Benioff had “known the major beats for at least five years” of how the show would end.
Season 7, which was broadcast in 2017, saw the characters head toward a great battle over the Iron Throne while a zombie army of White Walkers, led by the undead Night King, march south to destroy humanity.
The two executive producers said it has grown harder and harder to keep details of the plots secret. Although based on Martin’s series of novels “A Song of Ice and Fire,” the show has long gone beyond Martin’s books.
“We won’t be relieved until the final episode airs without a leak. We’re certainly happy we got through production without a leak. But there have been issues that have happened in post-production, or a week before an episode airs. So we’re entering the most dangerous time,” Benioff told Entertainment Weekly.
Weiss and Benioff said they plan to go offline when the finale is aired in May.
“We’ll be in an undisclosed location, turning off our phones and opening various bottles,” said Weiss.
“I plan to be very drunk and very far from the internet,” added Benioff.
“Game of Thrones” has won multiple Emmy awards and is HBO’s biggest hit ever with some 30 million viewers in the United States and an army of devoted fans worldwide.
Reporting by Jill Serjeant; Editing by Lisa Shumaker
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