George RR Martin, author of A Song of Ice and Fire, famously disagreed with Ryan Condal, the showrunner, over his views on House of the Dragon season three.
Now the renowned writer is sharing details of his disagreement, which he described as “worse than rocky” and “terrible.”
George’s first take on Ryan was in his words, “I hired Ryan. I thought Ryan and I were partners. And we were on the whole first season. I read early drafts of the scripts. I took notes. He would change some things. It worked really well – I thought.”
But cracks began to appear within the creatives when Miguel Sapochnik, co-showrunner, left, reportedly over creative control.
The author said he sided with Ryan after asking for his support. But as work on season two began, the duo’s relationship began to deteriorate.
“Then we got into season two, and he basically stopped listening to me. I took notes and nothing happened. Sometimes he explained why he didn’t do it. Other times he told me, ‘Oh, okay, yeah, I’ll think about it.'”
The tension between them reached a boiling point during a Zoom call where they clashed House of the Dragon season three’s story direction.
“It got worse and worse and I started to get more and more irritated. Eventually it got to the point where HBO told me that I had to submit all my notes to them and they would give Ryan our combined notes,” George says. The Hollywood Reporter, saying, “This is no longer my story.”
After the case reached its climax, the author called out the changes to House of the Dragon in season two, but they were removed after HBO executives became involved.
George, meanwhile, is still involved in the making of House of the Dragonseason three of which will be released in the summer of 2026.
