HBO defends ‘House of the Dragon’ choices after George R.R. Martin criticizes show in blog post

By Alli Rosenbloom, CNN

(CNN) — HBO has responded to comments made by author George R.R. Martin that criticized creative choices made on the network’s show “House of the Dragon,” which is based on Martin’s 2018 novel “Fire & Blood.”

In a blog post that appears to have been taken down, Martin raised several issues with creative decisions that showrunner Ryan Condal and HBO made in their TV adaptation of his book. According to Variety and screenshots of Martin’s comments, his criticism stemmed mostly from the choice to omit the toddler-aged son of Helaena Targaryen (Phia Saban) and King Aegon (Tom Glynn-Carney) named Maelor. Not having the child in the show reduced the emotional impact of some pivotal scenes that were part of this season and will do so again down the line, according to Martin.

The comments comes after Martin wrote in a separate blog post last week that he had planned to publish a post outlining his thoughts on “everything that’s gone wrong” with “Dragon.”

On Wednesday, HBO issued a statement in response to Martin, who serves as a co-creator and an executive producer of the series. (HBO, like CNN, is owned by Warner Bros. Discovery.)

“There are few greater fans of George R.R. Martin and his book ‘Fire & Blood’ than the creative team on ‘House of the Dragon,’ both in production and at HBO. Commonly, when adapting a book for the screen, with its own format and limitations, the showrunner ultimately is required to make difficult choices about the characters and stories the audience will follow,” the statement read.

The statement added: “We believe that Ryan Condal and his team have done an extraordinary job and the millions of fans the series has amassed over the first two seasons will continue to enjoy it.”

CNN has reached out to a representative for Martin for comment.

“Fire & Blood” is in the same universe as Martin’s popular “A Song of Ice and Fire” book series that spawned eight seasons of “Game of Thrones.” The stand-alone novel outlines the history of the Targaryen dynasty.

In his blog post on Wednesday, according to Variety, Martin did note that the ramifications of eliminating Maelor would likely only be noticeable to book readers, writing that viewers who’d never read the book “would still find the scenes heart-rendering.”

Condal, for his part, previously acknowledged the decision to write Maelor out of the show during an appearance on Wednesday’s episode of the “The Official Game of Thrones Podcast: House of the Dragon.” He said that due to the character’s young age and the passage of time, “we had to make some compromises in rendering that story so that we didn’t have to recast the whole cast multiple times.”

“It did have a ripple effect. And we decided that we were going to lean into it and try to make it a strength, instead of playing it as a weakness,” Condal added.

“House of the Dragon” debuted in 2022 and stars Olivia Cooke, Emma D’Arcy and Matt Smith, among others.

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