“It’s not my story anymore”: details of the clash between George RR Martin and the showrunner of House of the Dragon

The creator of Game of Thrones recounts his “execrable” relationship with Ryan Condal, a few months before the launch of season 3 of the spin-off.

In a long profile published in The Hollywood Reporter, George RR Martin bluntly describes his relationship with House of the Dragon showrunner Ryan Condal:

“It’s worse than conflict. Our relationship is terrible.”

The author of the novels that gave birth to the event series Game of Thrones, as well as the prequel House of the Dragon and the new spin-off, A Knight of Seven Kingdom, launched this week on HBO Max, likes to be involved in the adaptation of his stories. And it generally goes very well.

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In the THR article, Ira Parker, the showrunner of A Knight of Seven Kingdom, even suggests that it is thanks to Martin’s perspective that “these series work so well”. However, the author’s collaboration with Ryan Condal turned sour. GRRM says:

“I hired Ryan. I thought Ryan and I were partners. And we were throughout the first season. I would read the first drafts of the scripts. I would pass off notes. He would make some changes. It worked very well, or at least that’s what I thought.”

The first season of House of the Dragon was a hit, acclaimed by the public and critics. But very quickly, things deteriorate:

“Season 2 came around, and he pretty much stopped listening to me. I would submit notes, and nothing would happen. Sometimes he would explain to me why he wasn’t taking them into account. Other times, he would say, ‘Okay fine, I’ll try to think about it.’ that they would combine them to give to Ryan.”

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In 2024, season 2 of House of the Dragon is less well received, and in full broadcast Martin makes a post on his blog where he does not hide his dissatisfaction with the choices made by the series. HBO gets angry, and he is deleted by one of his assistants. But the damage is done, the press has already taken up Martin’s grievances which are exposed in broad daylight.

“I could have put it back online, but I would have looked like an idiot. And 80% of the post was made up of praise, but that’s not what people remembered,” the writer explains today. THR specifies that this was the first part of a series of six posts where Martin intended to detail what did not suit him in House of the Dragon!

Martin will not say more, but the Hollywood media cites sources describing a video call which would have caused a fire between Martin and Condal. The latter presented his vision for season 3, and Martin reportedly raised many objections to him, even going so far as to declare: “It’s not my story anymore.”

HBO is not making an official comment on this clash, but the channel would have worked behind the scenes to patch up the two men. Martin may therefore have been involved in writing the new season of House the Dragon, as an HBO source suggests:

“George and Ryan had a disagreement about the direction of Season 3. At that point, it was clear that the communication process was broken and that we had to start from scratch. So there was naturally a period where everyone took a step back until we found a new way to move forward.”