Game Of Thrones Season 8 will premiere on 14th April and it turns out that George R. R. Martin had been offered a cameo but he turned it down!
George R. R. Martin, whose A Song of Ice and Fire novels have been turned into the immensely popular Game Of Thrones TV series was invited by showrunners David Benioff and Dan Weiss to travel to Northern Ireland and film a cameo in the final season of Game Of Thrones.
However, Martin decided to prioritize the upcoming novel in the “A Song of Ice and Fire” series as it’s been 8 years since the last book, “The Dance with Dragons” was published and the fans are wondering when the book will finally be published.
Speaking with EW, George R. R. Martin said, “David and Dan invited me to a cameo in one of the final episodes, which I was tempted to do, but I didn’t think just for the sake of a cameo I could take the time to return to Belfast.”
Martin mentioned that he did film a cameo for Game Of Thrones Season 1 but the pilot episode was reshot and as a result, his footage was discarded when the showrunners decided to film the episode once again.
“There was a cameo in the original pilot that was cut,” said Martin. “I was a guest at Dany’s wedding. But that was when she was played by Tamzin Merchant so all that footage got thrown out when we recast with Emilia Clarke.”
The showrunners have revealed in the past that the original pilot was a “Piece of Sh*t” and they were advised to re-shoot everything if they wanted to do something about it and they ended up changing over 90% of the original pilot.
American screenwriter, Craig Mazin who had watched the original pilot had told David and Dan that the pilot was a complete mess and this is what Dan Weiss had to say about it:
“Watching them watch that original pilot was one of the most painful experiences of my life. As soon as it finished, Craig said, ‘You guys have a massive problem.’”
Luckily, the showrunners got their act together and turned the disastrous original pilot into one of the most popular TV series in the world. Now that the series is going to get over in May, the fan pressure will just keep on growing for Martin to finish the 6th book.
There have been some fan theories which say that George R. R. Martin has been working on the last two books together and is just waiting for the series to get over to release both the books but it’s just a theory as of now and who knows, looking at Martin’s writing speed, it might even take another 6-8 years to release the final book.
All we can do is wait for the 8th season to release and once it gets over, just hope that George R. R. Martin releases The Winds of Winter at the earliest.
