Game of Thrones creators on the expectations for the series finale

Last Updated on July 30, 2021

The premiere of the eighth and final season of Game of Thrones is now a little over a month away; so close, and yet so far. Entertainment Weekly released a big-spread regarding the final season earlier today which featured a lot of new photos as well as information about the "unprecedented and relentless" final battle between the Army of the Dead and the Army of the Living. Game of Thrones creators David Benioff and Dan Weiss also spoke with Entertainment Weekly to discuss what it was like bringing the series to a well-earned conclusion as well as sky-high expectations of fans.

"We want people to love it," Weiss said. "It matters a lot to us. We’ve spent 11 years doing this. We also know no matter what we do, even if it’s the optimal version, that a certain number of people will hate the best of all possible versions. There is no version where everybody says, ‘I have to admit, I agree with every other person on the planet that this is the perfect way to do this’ — that’s an impossible reality that doesn’t exist. I’m hoping for the Breaking Bad [finale] argument where it’s like, 'Is that an A or an A+?'" David Benioff added, "From the beginning we’ve talked about how the show would end. A good story isn’t a good story if you have a bad ending. Of course we worry." The pair also elected to direct the series finale themselves as they'd spent too much time obsessing over every little detail of the show's ending.

When something has been sitting with you for so long, you have such a specific sense of the way each moment should play and feel. Not just in terms of ‘this shot or that shot,’ though sometimes it’s that as well. So it’s not really fair to ask somebody else to get that right. We’d be lurking over their shoulder every take driving them crazy making it hard for them to do their job. If we’re going to drive anybody crazy it might as well be ourselves.

One of the final episodes of Game of Thrones will bring us what is expected to be the longest consecutive battle sequence ever committed to film, as well as uniting the biggest number of Game of Thrones actors since the pilot episode. "What we have asked the production team and crew to do this year truly has never been done in television or in a movie," says co-executive producer Bryan Cogman. "This final face-off between the Army of the Dead and the army of the living is completely unprecedented and relentless and a mixture of genres even within the battle. There are sequences built within sequences built within sequences. David and Dan [wrote] an amazing puzzle and Miguel [Sapochnik] came in and took it apart and put it together again. It’s been exhausting but I think it will blow everybody away." Will Game of Thrones be able to stick the landing? Normally I'd say that it'd be impossible to please everyone, but I've got my fingers crossed that David Benioff and Dan Weiss can pull it off.

Game of Thrones will return to HBO on April 14, 2019.