House of the Dragon Showrunner Strikes Back After George Martin’s Season 2 ‘Disappointing’ Criticism

House of the Dragon ’s season 3 is now officially in the works almost a year after the second instalment’s premiere, but the started production is now risking to pit George Martin against the show’s creators once again.

The series, just like its predecessor Game of Thrones, has had a long history of receiving waves of backlash from its audiences and Martin himself, with both parties slamming House of the Dragon for not being faithful to its source material.

The writer previously took to his personal blog, expressing his frustration over several major changes that the storyline of the show’s second season had gone through; House of the Dragon’s showrunner, however, might have just offered a different side of the story.

House of the Dragon’s Ryan Condal Responds to George Martin’s Harsh Criticism

Despite many fans likely siding with George Martin after having become familiar with A Song of Ice and Fire and Fire & Blood, Ryan Condal has recently hinted at the author deliberately choosing to stay away from the show’s creation process.

In a recent interview with Entertainment Weekly, Condal revealed that he had been eager to collaborate with Martin on the series for as much as the latter wanted to, though with time their relationship deteriorated, making Martin alienate and Condal taking the entire control over the process.

“I will simply say, I made every effort to include George in the adaptation process. I really did. Over years and years. And we really enjoyed a mutually fruitful, I thought, really strong collaboration for a long time. But at some point, as we got deeper down the road, he just became unwilling to acknowledge the practical issues at hand in a reasonable way”, the showrunner stated.

Talking about his own feeling about the issue, Condal admitted this was a disappointing turn of the events, considering that he himself has been a fan of A Song of Ice and Fire for quite a long time now, also calling Martin “a monument, a literary icon in addition to a personal hero of mine, and was heavily influential on me coming up as a writer”.

Ryan Condal Hopes to Make Peace With George Martin Over House of the Dragon Last Seasons

As the show’s third season has just entered its full production mode, also paving the way for a fourth and final instalment, Condal has no other option but to move on with his own vision, even if it doesn’t really align with what George Martin has to say.

Several months ago, the writer panned House of the Dragon’s season 2 in a now deleted post in his personal blog; this, however, wasn’t a reason for the team to stop going forward, according to Condal.

“At the end of the day, I just have to keep marching not only the writing process forward, but also the practical parts of the process forward for the sake of the crew, the cast, and for HBO, because that's my job”, the showrunner revealed, also expressing hope that “George and I can rediscover that harmony someday”.