What Could Have Been for George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire and its TV adaptations, Game of Thrones and House of the Dragon.
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Literature
A Song of Ice and Fire
- While coming up with ideas for the series very early in the process, Martin briefly considered not including dragons or magic elements at all, making it into a "historical fiction about fake history". When he discussed the series with his friend and fellow writer Phyllis Eisenstein (who unfortunately passed away in 2020), she told him that he needed to put in the dragons, and he complied. As such, A Storm of Swords is dedicated to "Phyllis, who made me put the dragons in".
- In 1993, Martin wrote a three-page letter
with his original pitch for what he thought would be a trilogy (A Game of Thrones, A Dance with Dragons, and The Winds of Winter). He stated that he had an overall structure but he didn't know exactly how it would pan out and expected to make changes along the way. The differences between the planned novels and the final versions are quite vast, although some plot points were used in heavily reworked forms.note In the original pitch for A Game of Thrones:- Daenerys, instead of taking Drogo's side in killing Viserys, eventually murders Drogo in revenge. While this makes her a pariah among the Dothraki, she would somehow regain their favor and eventually invade Westeros with her horde in A Dance with Dragons.
- The summary of Bran's arc implies that magic is more commonplace or at least significantly different from its portrayal in the final version of the series.
- Ned manages to help Catelyn and Arya escape from King's Landing to Winterfell before his execution.
- Sansa marries Joffrey, has his child and chooses him over her parents and siblings, a decision she comes to regret.
- Tyrion becomes close friends with both Sansa and Arya, and eventually falls in love with the latter.
- Robb maims Joffrey on the battlefield, only to later die in battle.
- Tyrion besieges and burns Winterfell.
- Benjen is Lord Commander of the Night's Watch until Jon Snow takes the mantle.
- Following Tyrion taking Winterfell, Catelyn, Bran and Arya go to the Wall for refuge. However, they are turned away due to the Watch's vow of neutrality, which bitterly estranges Bran and Jon. Arya realizes she has fallen in love with Jon. Afterwards, Catelyn and her children try to find refuge beyond the Wall, only be captured by Mance Rayder. Catelyn is later killed by an Other.
- The Others have a second type of minion alongside the wights, called "neverborn" (a term which did make it onto some back cover summaries of the final A Game of Thrones, for whatever reason). Whatever these are is not elaborated upon.
- Tyrion removes Joffrey from the throne. Jaime takes the throne by killing everyone else in the line of succession and frames Tyrion for the murders, resulting in Tyrion's exile. Tyrion then teams up with the Starks to remove Jaime from power, though he and Jon have a Love Triangle regarding Arya. Arya for her part angsts over loving her brother until the final book "reveals [Jon's] parentage".
- Other changes in the drafts for the books included:
- King's Landing was meant to have been struck by a plague, with Jon Arryn's death meant to be believed from it.
- Jon Arryn was the one who had accompanied Ned to the Tower of Joy, not Howland Reed.
- Robert Baratheon's father, Steffon, was originally meant to have died alongside Rickard Stark at the hands of King Aerys.
- Renly was originally the Lord of Dragonstone as well as Warden of the Narrow Sea, while Stannis was to have been Lord of Storm's End.
- Arya's direwolf was originally named Nymerion, the namesake being "the warrior-witch of Valyria."
- Jon and Robb were originally 12 years old (with the time since Robert's Rebellion to reflect that) while Daenerys was originally 13.
- Dany didn't receive her eggs during her wedding, but instead is given a cedar chest full of silks, velvets and damasks from Illyrio. She was to have discovered a cache of dragon eggs in the wilderness beyond Vaes Dothrak.
- Catelyn was to take Tyrion prisoner upon Ned's orders, indicating that Ned's characterisation was to be much darker.
- Maester Cressen was originally to have successfully lit a glass candle in the prologue for A Clash of Kings.
- Rhaegal was originally named Rhaegor.
- Ser Gregor's torturer "The Tickler" was originally named "The Piper."
- Tywin was already going to warn Tyrion that he created a trap to kill Robb (the Red Wedding) in the scene of the first Small Council meeting in A Storm of Swords.
- During the Knight of the Laughing Tree story, Prince Aegon was said to have been newborn at the time of the Tourney of Harrenhal.
- Brienne would be raped by the Brave Companions.
- Catelyn's death in the Red Wedding is much more gruesome: in addition to raking at her face with her nails, she also rips off her own ears and lips.
- House Lannister's valyrian-steel sword Brightroar was originally named "Blackroar".
- Martin planned to have a five-year Time Skip between the third and fourth books, which would have had a major effect especially on the several child and teenage characters. In the end, he wasn't able to pull it off. And ironically, there actually was a five year gap between the two books' publication. He lampshades his original plan with one character saying (paraphrased) that he "expected five years of peace, at least, before Cersei screwed everything up."
- One of Martin's early plans involved each chapter being a few months apart, but he discarded it for the same reason he would eventually abandon the Time Skip described above: the missing time would necessitate a large amount of exposition and flashbacks.
- In early drafts, the Red Wedding was intended to be the climax of A Game of Thrones: the other plot aspects were intended for the trilogy's second and third books. Once Ned Stark's arc overtook the first book's plot (it's hard to tell if he was always meant to be a POV character) and the other plots were more deeply fleshed out, A Clash of Kings was developed to cover the War of the Five Kings arc, likely with the Red Wedding intended to occur here as a climax — it was GRRM's realizing just how much plot he still had that needed to breathe which led to him expanding the war and its immediate aftermath into A Storm of Swords, and the Red Wedding finally took place just over halfway through that book.
- A preliminary version of one A Dance with Dragons chapter had Tyrion have a vision of the Shrouded Lord, a legendary figure said to command the greyscale infection, after falling into the Rhoyne. Tyrion would successfully convince the Lord not to infect him by making him laugh at a joke. Martin apparently quite liked this sequence but decided against using it since it was a little too mystical. Tyrion still dreams of the Shrouded Lord in the finished book, but these are perfectly normal nightmares where the Lord is also Tywin.
- Several chapters were edited out of A Dance With Dragons, including ones for Aeron Greyjoy and Sansa, who didn't have chapters in the finished version. Their chapters have reportedly been moved into The Winds of Winter, so we'll have to wait and see if that is the case.
- This has actually been the case with every book to some extent or another. Martin has often written chapters (sometimes adding up to a hundred pages or more) that are intended for one book which are held back and published in the next, either to cut down on length or improve pacing. Some early chapters from A Clash of Kings were originally written to be part of A Game of Thrones, while some from A Storm of Swords were supposed to be part of A Clash of Kings. A Feast with Crows and A Dance with Dragons took this to the next level, as they were originally intended to be a single book that was then split up based on region. What changes this caused is unknown.
- Maelys the Monstrous, the fifth Blackfyre rebel, originally got his sobriquet because he sacrificed his young son, Maenar, in an ill-fated attempt to hatch a dragon egg in addition to his deformities. In the released version, he instead got his epithet from just his deformities. No mention of his son is made anywhere and he's explicitly the last male Blackfyre.
- Originally, Young Griff would have discussed the history of the Ninepenny Kings with Tyrion in A Feast with Crows, which would have shed greater light on the history of the alliance. Namely, they were originally a band of ten friends who met beneath an apple tree, who then had to work together to pluck 10 apples for each other. Inspired by this, one of them proposed working together to carve out 10 kingdoms for themselves, to which most agreed. One refused, however, and so the remaining nine killed him beneath the apple tree where they would then swear their oath to help each other. The segment then delves into why the Ninepenny Kings ultimately failed while Griff's own invasion will succeed: they has no legitimacy while he does. This is believed by some to be the reason why this segment was cut, as it hints too heavily towards the possibility that Young Griff is actually a Blackfyre, who has learned from the mistakes of the failed 5th Rebellion and is pretending to be a Targaryen this time.
- A minor case: A Dance with Dragons was originally going to have a completely different cover design than what it eventually got. This was a direct result of the book's infamous Schedule Slip: when it was first announced, the publishers (understandably) planned to use a design following the basic template of the first four books—but by the time it was actually finished, the entire series had been re-released with new cover art to coincide with the release of the television adaptation. Accordingly, Dragons was given a new cover◊ to match.
Live-Action Television
Game of Thrones
- There were initially talks to adapt a film of A Song of Ice and Fire instead. George R. R. Martin refused, feeling that the books were too detailed to be condensed into a film's running time. A TV series was decided on as a better format. Apparently ways of condensing the storylines was to do one film focusing on Daenerys and another on the Starks, etc. Martin officially turned the offer down after the failure of The Golden Compass.
- "The Rains of Castamere" was pushed to be the show's theme song by David Benioff, but D.B. Weiss convinced him not to do it.
- The role of Joffrey was neck and neck between Jack Gleeson and a South African actor called Alan Miller, who was slightly more experienced. Series creator DB Weiss favoured Miller, feeling it was time to put him in an international series. George R. R. Martin preferred Jack for the role however and he was ultimately cast.
- Before Tamzin Merchant, and subsequently Emilia Clarke, were cast as Daenerys - it was rumored that Anna Popplewell - who played Susan Pevensie in The Chronicles of Narnia - was offered the role but was uncomfortable with the nudity. Elizabeth Olsen was also considered.
- Emilia Clarke was going to wear purple contact lenses to match Daenerys's eye colour from the books. They found that the lenses irritated her so much they affected her performance, so they were abandoned.
- A minor example would be Sandor Clegane's hunting dogs in Winterfell; the scene was shot with them there at first, but they spooked the horses and therefore were cut from the final version.
- The original pilot was shot on 35mm film but when it was re-shot it was changed to digital which is what the rest of the series is shot on.
- The showrunners wanted to eliminate Rickon even at the time of the original pilot, but George R. R. Martin warned them that the character would be important in the future.
- Paddy Considine was approached by his agent about an early role in the show, but rejected it without even looking at the script when he was told it was for a fantasy show. When House of the Dragon was announced, Considine was far more enthusiastic in accepting the role of Viserys I Targaryen.
- Brian Cox was offered a role early on, which he revealed in his 2022 memoir Putting the Rabbit in the Hat to be Robert Baratheon, but he passed as the money was "not great" and the character's early death meant he would not be sticking around long enough to reap any potential raise.
- Tom Hollander was offered to play Littlefinger but turned it down. He regretted doing so. Dominic West was also offered the role.
- Gillian Anderson was offered a role (reportedly either Cersei Lannister or Melisandre) on the show but turned it down.
- Sam Heughan auditioned to play various characters including Renly Baratheon, Loras Tyrell and a few different members of the Night's Watch.
- Actresses who auditioned for Cersei Lannister were Tricia Helfer and Rebecca Mader.
- Sam Claflin auditioned for both Jon Snow and Viserys Targaryen.
- Jamie Bamber auditioned for Jaime Lannister.
- Elena Satine screen-tested against Emilia Clarke for Daenerys Targaryen.
- Mahershala Ali auditioned for Xaro Xhoan Daxos.
- Alfie Allen and Iwan Rheon both auditioned for Jon Snow.
- Rian Johnson, who is a fan of the show already, was asked to direct some episodes in Seasons 2 and 3 but had to turn them down due to working on Looper and Breaking Bad at that time.
- When the show still planned for the Jeyne Westerling character to be included in the storyline, she was made to be a battlefield nurse to make a more budget-friendly adaptation of her and Robb's meeting from the books where she nurses him after he's wounded in battle. This was changed when the character of Jeyne was adapted into a new character — Talisa Maegyr — and the producers opted to make it a more generic romance. However, it was too late to change this character from being a nurse, so they had to come up with an explanation for why a Volantene noble would be doing this kind of grunge work despite that it didn't even serve any story purpose.
- Peter Jackson's Weta Workshop actually offered to help animate the Battle of Blackwater. Sadly, George R. R. Martin politely declined their offer, as they wanted to avoid creating, or even being perceived to create, a second Battle of Helm's Deep.
- According to Jacob Anderson, Grey Worm and Missandei were originally to be brother and sister.
- Locke was supposed to die at the end of Season 3 by being thrown into his own bear pit, but Noah Taylor impressed everyone, so he lived until the middle of Season 4.
- Oded Fehr was considered to play Oberyn Martell.
- Michiel Huisman and Pedro Pascal had worked together on a failed pilot for a Live-Action Adaptation of The Sixth Gun the year before season 4, which would have prevented them both from joining the show if it had been picked up.
- Vanity Fair went to the WGA library and dug out Martin's early draft for "The Lion and the Rose" (a.k.a. the Purple Wedding episode). Unlike Martin's other scripts, it differs notably from the version finally produced.note :
- The episode would have settled the question of who was behind the Season 1 assassination attempt on Bran much earlier than the series ultimately did, with the same guilty party the books imply: Joffrey. Tyrion would have realized this when Joffrey said, in response to getting the Valyrian steel sword as a wedding gift, that he was not unfamiliar with the material ... and in turn Tyrion makes remarks to Joffrey suggesting he'd figured out from this that Joffrey had tried to have Bran killed, explaining why Joffrey is so cruel to him during the wedding scenes, and why Tyrion is framed for Joffrey's murder, developments that make less sense in the finished episode.
- This makes Tyrion more honest with Shae about why she should leave him if she wants to live, with him warning her rather graphically about how brutally Tywin could have her killed ... and better setting up her later betrayal. Likewise, Varys would have informed Tyrion that Tywin knows about Tyrion's relationship with Shae not in a quick, furtive conversation on a garden path, but in the dungeons ... with Varys "appear[ing] as a denizen of the dungeons; clad in leather and mail, an iron helm on his head, heavy boots on his feet, a whip coiled at his side. Even a BEARD".note
- Bran's first vision is much more extensive, to the point of giving us our first glimpse of the Night King and setting up the psychic connection between the Stark children and the direwolves. A handwritten note suggests the plan in season 5 or 6 was to eventually have the direwolves battle Ramsay's dogs. Since at the time of the writing Stannis and Ramsay are still alive in the books, this has led to speculation about what happens to Ramsay in the books may well be very different from his onscreen fate. It also would have foreshadowed Arya's studies with the Faceless Men in the next two seasons.
- Roose Bolton tells Ramsay of his plan to marry him off to ... Arya, who would actually be Sansa's friend Jeyne, the plotline from the books that was later shelved in favor of having Sansa herself marry Ramsay.
- Theon would have looked a lot worse for the wear at Ramsay's hands, much more like he does in the books, with some clearly missing fingers, and prematurely white hair.
- Many of the minor characters who are in the book's wedding scene were also present,note as well as all the dishes prepared for it.
- The dialogue about the famine in the Riverlands reflected the plan, at the time, to follow the books and have Jaime go there, a plotline replaced with the ill-fated Dorne trip and only used in much more condensed form in Season 6.
- The scene where three of Stannis's underlings are burned alive as punishment would have shown more directly the hand of the Lord of Light. At a certain point the flames would have suddenly increased and changed color ... with apparitions of the three dead seen, blissful and younger-looking, briefly above. Melisandre's conversations with Shireen would also have foreshadowed what ultimately happens to the latter in the show.note
- Joffrey's death would have been gorier ... the poison would have made him slash away at his face and neck as well as cough up blood.
- Oberyn's death would be more brutal than in the books where Gregor would cut his fingers, tear off his face and rip his head off. But this was not filmed because it's already too brutal which would not be allowed to be aired on TV and it would contradict to Gregor's statement of crushing Elia's head by demonstrating it to Oberyn.
- An extra said that there were two days scheduled to shoot Grenn and the Nightwatchmen' fight against the giant in Season 4 episode "The Watchers on the Wall", but it was cancelled due to budget.
- Prior to the airing of Season 4, producers had to decide which of the two storylines (Dorne and Ironborn) would be in Season 5, meaning the other storyline not chosen would be in Season 6 instead. After the sudden popularity of Prince Oberyn Martell, they decided to include the Dorne arc in Season 5 while the Ironborn arc would be in Season 6. Things would probably be different if it's the other way around (and possibly much better; see Troubled Production above).
- According to Jessica Henwick, the producers were unsure whether they were going to put Nymeria Sand on the show as they were also planning to include Sarella Sand, Oberyn's other bastard daughter who is in Oldtown and is possibly posing as a man with the name Alleras who is studying in the Citadel.
- Jared Harris was considered (and was the first choice) to play the High Sparrow.
- Neil Marshall, who directed Blackwater and The Watchers on the Wall, was the first director considered by the showrunners to direct the episode Hardhome, but Marshall was forced to refuse because he was busy with other projects, and Miguel Sapochnik was hired in his place. Marshall regrets not being available at the time, because he would have loved to direct the episode.
- In the original script of Season 5 episode "Mother's Mercy", Myrcella's death in the Season 5 finale was supposed to be very brutal where instead of getting a nosebleed and collapsing into Jaime's arms, she would suffer a massive brain hemorrhage where her brain matter would scatter on the floor and Jaime would still be holding onto her with brain-blood all over it. The directors changed it and wanted to give her a sweet and innocent death instead of a gruesome one which might be a Call-Back to Oberyn.
- Prior to being cast as Eleven in Stranger Things, Millie Bobby Brown auditioned for the role of Lyanna Mormont, which went to Bella Ramsey.
- Stannis' death originally had him deliver a long monologue about his spiritual beliefs and regrets, including his belief he won't be able to apologize to Renly and Shireen if there actually is one since he'll almost certainly go to Hell for all he's done. The final scene simply has him bluntly tell Brienne to do her duty, which is perhaps more in character for someone so stoic.
- Apparently Alexander Siddig was contracted for four episodes in Season 6, but the plans were changed during production for some unclear reasons. Siddig didn't know the reason for this but he took the changes professionally. Whatever the original plan is, it might have salvaged the much maligned Dorne arc.
- According to the actors, they shot an unused scene for the Season 6 episode, "The Door" where Sansa teases Brienne about her new Wildling admirer. Likewise, Hodor's death was indented to be even more brutal. Luckily, the writers decided that the scene was emotionally jarring as it is.
- The return of Sandor Clegane in Season 6 went through several iterations of some other character coming across him, before the crew figured Rory McCann was a good enough actor that he could carry the episode's story without any help from other established characters.
- It's possible that Margaery might have survived the Green Trial, if only Natalie Dormer hadn't been asking to leave the show since Season 5 was being made.
- In the Season 6 episode "Battle of the Bastards", the director wanted to give Ramsay's death the Alas, Poor Villain treatment, but luckily Benioff and Weiss talked some sense into him, since no one could possibly buy it. Additionally, Ghost was supposed to appear in the episode and fight alongside Jon, but he was cut due to budget concerns. Specifically, the mile of red tape surrounding importing the endangered white wolf who serves as the non-CG version of Ghost from Canada, where the wolf lives.
- In Season 7, the writers considered making Davos fall in love with Missandei, but the actor Liam Cunningham was against the idea.
- Initially, the writers actually wanted to end the show at Season 7 due to prior commitment with other studios with a 7-episode pitch (for the seven seasons) and their goal to end it in less than 75 episodes, but HBO convinced them to make another season for a proper finale.
- According to Isaac Hempstead-Wright, there was supposed to be scene in the Season 7 finale which was cut where Sansa would go to Bran for his help and found out about Littlefinger's plans from him. This probably indicates that the feud between Sansa and Arya is real and not staged as what viewers believed but this scene might also make Bran a Deus ex Machina who would eventually solve the feud in a snap and Arya being Unintentionally Unsympathetic after she intends to kill her own sister and take her face.
- Lena Headley revealed that a deleted scene featured Cersei having a miscarriage during Season 7, explaining her returning to drinking wine by the end of said season and her descent into suicidal delusion.
- Originally the showrunners planned that the final season would consist of three theatrical films, as they believed they would be too expensive to produce for television. The series' huge popularity made HBO spend the necessary budget for the final season.
- George R. R. Martin turned down a request for a Creator Cameo in Season 8, saying he was far too busy writing The Winds of Winter.
- In the final season, it was originally planned that Jorah would survive the battle against the White Walkers, then turn against Dany as well and end up going beyond the Wall along with Jon. Benioff and Weiss then changed their mind, realizing that even if the destruction of King's Landing would cause him to turn against Dany, he would still never be able to join up with her killer. Iain Glen said he was quite happy with the change, and relieved that Jorah didn't have to see her turn bad.
- The showrunners discussed several different options for who would kill the Night King: from the beginning they decided it wouldn't be Jon because it was too obvious. They briefly considered Sandor Clegane, before deciding that his big climax in the final season would be his confrontation with his brother, Gregor. Finally, after discarding Jon, the Hound and Brienne, they chose Arya.
- Shortly after the finale, George R. R. Martin said that both he and HBO wanted at least 10 seasons for the whole series (while Martin himself wanting 12 to 13 seasons to adapt all of his ideas), saying that there was more than enough material to do this.
- According to Benioff and Weiss, after AT&T purchased Warner, the new executives asked them if the series could be filmed on a vertical screen so they could watch it on their cell phone. According to the duo, these same executives also wanted to make mini episodes of the series.
House of the Dragon
- George RR Martin stated in an interview that he and Ryan Condal discussed the show keeping the Framing Device of Fire & Blood as a historical story being told in "present" Westeros by Archmaester Gyldayn with the occasional conflicting sources. They ultimately decided this didn't work in a TV format and nixed it. It should be noted that the last time this was employed successfully was in I, Claudius, and that heavily relied on just the one protagonist's perspective, as much of an Unreliable Narrator he was.
- Originally, the showrunners wanted the Iron Throne to look more faithful to the descriptions in the books. They quickly realized that an Iron Throne more faithful to the books would be quite impractical in a live-action adaptation, specifically citing the fact that the king (or any other character seated on the Throne) would always be at the top, while the other characters would be on the ground. Getting most characters in the same shot would have become nearly impossible. They eventually decided to insert hundreds of molten swords around the throne to maintain some kind of fidelity to the original concept.
- According to Martin, there were different starting points of when the show should begin adapting the events of Fire & Blood. One writer proposed that the show open with Aemma Arryn's death, while another took it even further by proposing Viserys' death as a starting point, therefore completely bypassing "Heirs of the Dragon - A Question of Succession" chapter from the book in favor of focusing on the Dance of the Dragons proper, albeit with liberal use of flashbacks to disclose the events leading up to it (making it almost an antithesis of Game of Thrones, which mostly shunned flashbacks). However, they realized that this would have severely complicated the storytelling, and discarded the plan. Martin himself believed that the starting point should have been 40 years earlier, beginning with Princes Aemon and Baelon growing up and how their untimely deaths caused Jaehaerys to convene the Great Council in the first place. However, everyone else rejected this because it would have meant even more timeskips and recastings than those contained in the final product (which some critics considered were too much already), and pushing the Dance further back.
Planned / Cancelled Series
- It was announced in 2018 that a prequel series was in the works, with the production title of Bloodmoon. It was set during the original Long Night around 8000 years before the events of Game of Thrones. Jane Goldman was head writer and showrunner, and it starred Naomi Watts as a "charismatic socialite hiding a dark secret", in addition to starring Josh Whitehouse, Naomi Ackie, Jamie Campbell Bower, Georgie Henley, Sheila Atim, Ivanno Jeremiah, Denise Gough, Alex Sharp and Toby Regbo as major characters. Miranda Richardson, Marquis Rodriguez, John Simm, Richard McCabe, John Heffernan and Dixie Egerickx were also reported to be part of the cast. A pilot was filmed, but it was negatively received by HBO and on October 29th 2019 it was officially announced that Bloodmoon was cancelled, with HBO later announcing a different prequel series revolving around House Targaryen, House of the Dragon.
- Staff linguist David J. Peterson gave a podcast interview two weeks after Bloodmoon was cancelled that shed some light on the subject. Peterson confirmed that the third prequel pitch was actually for a Doom of Valyria series set outside of Westeros, which he'd even been hired for, but it got put on hold when HBO picked Bloodmoon (there had been leaks about a year before that the third idea was a Valyria prequel). Moreover, Peterson said that he'd never even heard what the fourth and fifth pitches were, nor did anybody he worked with, which meant they probably never got past the initial pitch phase.
