Game Of Thrones will undoubtedly add even more Emmy wins to the dozens already collected by the HBO series, even if some of the show’s stars ended up nominating themselves. HBO Programming President Casey Bloys already discussed that last matter at the Television Critics Association’s annual Summer Press Tour, and he addressed numerous other topics as well. Those included the enormous backlash and disappointment from Game of Thrones fans, who even petitioned for season 8 to be rebooted or otherwise remade.
The idea of that petition was kind of hilarious, yet it prompted Sophie Turner to speak out on how “disrespectful” she found the outrage to be. Some of those fans later came around and redirected their energy for charitable purposes, but their sentiment’s still resonating through the cable TV ether. This led Thrones showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss to skip San Diego Comic-Con, but Bloys has confirmed that the backlash and petition did not influence HBO’s thought processes on ending the show:
“There are very, very few downsides to having a hugely popular show, but one I can think of is when you try to end it, many people have big opinions on how it should end. The petition shows a lot of enthusiasm and passion for the show, but it wasn’t something that we seriously considered.”
Bloys continued, stressing that the showrunners largely operated their own train during these past few years, given that by season 8, “there’s usually a rhythm between showrunners and the network as to what they expect.” Well, Seth Rogen still had a good time while mocking Benioff and Weiss for skipping SDCC, where several of the stars were left to express their surprise on the level of backlash during their panel. Eventually, folks might move on from being angry about Thrones and focus their ire upon another show. Or maybe not? Damon Lindelof knows a few things about this subject, and he’ll be launching Watchmen at HBO soon.
While speaking to the TCA, Bloys also suggested that more spinoffs might be happening after all, in addition to the Naomi Watts-starring prequel. Still, the wait for the prequel will be a mighty long one, so if you’re waiting on any other followups to happen anytime soon? Don’t get too excited, yet.
