Despite holding an audience of millions around the world, Game of Thrones will come to an end with its eighth season.
However, that was not the hopes of George RR Martin, author of the A Song of Ice and Fire novels that the HBO series is adapted from.
Speaking to Variety, Martin revealed that he initially wanted the series to continue for another couple of seasons, saying it "could’ve gone 11, 12, 13 seasons".
“[Showrunner] David [Benioff] and Dan [Wiess] have been saying for like five seasons that seven seasons is all they would go,” he continued.
“We got them to go to eight but not any more than that. There was a period like five years ago when they were saying seven seasons and I was saying 10 seasons and they won, they’re the ones actually working on it.”
Asked whether that meant the characters could spin-off and have their own shows, Martin said that was unlikely as the story's loose ends were tied and the actors would likely want to move on to new projects.
“I know all of the actors, as great as they are, all the actors are anxious to get on and play other roles,” he said. “They don’t want to spend their entire lives playing one role and that’s fine, that’s great, we had such an amazing cast.”
That does not mean there are no new stories set in the fictional world of Westeros coming to television screens. There are currently multiple spin-offs in development with brand new characters set in the past, with one recently being commissioned for a pilot episode.
