Provider: Helen Sloan/HBO
Game of Thrones stars are starting to follow the fans to admit their concerns over season eight and now director Miguel Sapochnik has revealed he disagreed with writers David Benioff and D.B. Weiss over The Battle of Winterfell, specifically the death of Ser Jorah Mormont.
Taking charge of the most pivotal moment in Game of Thrones was naturally a huge honour, but ultimately the war against the white walkers fell flat with viewers who moaned they couldn’t see a thing, while the death of The Night King (played by Vladimr Furdik) at the hands of Arya Stark (Maisie Williams) was a massive anti-climax.
Although, their fight lost an MTV Movie Award last night and fans are seeing red. Basically, they’re ficklest fandom going.
We wanted shocks; we got anything but. And Sapochnik agrees.
‘I wanted to kill everyone,’ the filmmaker told Indiewire. ‘I wanted to kill Jorah (Iain Glen) in the horse charge at the beginning. I was up for killing absolutely everyone.
‘I wanted it to be ruthless, so that in the first 10 minutes you say, “All bets are off; anyone could die.” And David and Dan didn’t want to. There was a lot of back-and-forth on that.’
Sapochnik also confirmed creative clashes with Benioff and Weiss over season five episodes The Gift and Hardhome, but, ultimately, there are just two people in charge.
‘I think a key thing is like it’s not my show, right?‘ he continued. ‘I didn’t come up with the show and make it. I am a hired director to go and do that. They have let me in and let me be involved, and I’ve really loved doing that. But final cut is not mine. Final cut is theirs; it’s their choice.’
But their choices eventually lead to Benioff and Weiss being blacklisted as ‘bad writers’ on Google; sparked an online petition which attracted almost 2 million signatures and was even panned by Lena Headey, who has now come forward as one of the many critics of Cersei Lannister’s death.
Game of Thrones seasons one to eight are available to stream on NOW TV.
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