House of the Dragon season three has made loads of changes and deviated quite a lot from George R.R. Martin’s book Fire & Blood, and now one of the show’s directors has spoken out about why those changes were made. The latest episode has once again moved away from the original book. Many new storylines and character choices were added that were never part of Martin’s version. Some people seem to like the changes. But others have been questioning whether the show is moving too far away from the source material. Even George R.R. Martin has criticised the changes. He has distanced himself from some of the decisions made in the show. In a blog post in August 2024, he said there were “larger and more toxic” changes coming in seasons three and four. He also revealed that he had a difficult year and was not looking forward to writing about “everything that’s gone wrong with House of the Dragon.” So, after George R.R. Martin’s recent criticism of House of the Dragon, director Nina Lopez-Corrado has defended the decisions made by the writers. House of the Dragon director says the changes were needed Credit: HBO Speaking to Entertainment Weekly, Lopez-Corrado said, “We do deviate just a little bit in episode seven from what’s originally in the books and, personally, from a character standpoint, what Ryan [Condal, showrunner] and the writers did in terms of that really helped evolve the character storylines from what were in the books.” She also said, “I know that’s a very controversial thing to say for diehards, but I think some of the storylines that you’re gonna see in [episode] seven that’ll carry on into eight were really executed strongly by the writers and also by the actors.” Basically, her argument is that the show is not changing things just for the sake of changing them. Instead, the writers are using the extra freedom to explore the characters. Ryan Condal explains why adapting the book is complicated Credit: HBO House of the Dragon showrunner Ryan Condal has previously defended the adaptation process. Speaking about the challenge of adapting the book, Condal said, “It’s this incomplete history. And it requires a lot of joining of the dots and a lot of invention as you go along the way.” He also said, “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.” Condal also said, “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.” He then added, “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.” For all the latest film and TV updates and hot takes, like our Facebook page. Featured image credit: HBO Post navigation Next storyPrevious story
