Summary
Life couldn’t be busier forGame of Thronesauthor George R.R. Martin right now, as the legendary fantasy writer seems to have a lot on his plate with expanding his Song of Ice and Fire universe. Now, Martin has high hopes when it comes to adapting several animated projects based on hisSong of Ice & Firebooks and has a few animated shows in mind that have inspired him while going into the development of the spin-offs.
Although Martin has yet to finish his long-awaited book,The Winds of Winter, to the dismay of many of his fans, and with no sign of the sixth book on the horizon anytime soon, the author has been kept fairly preoccupied with projects likeThe Hedge Knightand even talk about anElden Ringmovie. There’s also the recent movie,In The Lost Lands, which is based on his 1982 short story that Martin consulted on, which has kept the author further from finishing the book. In the past,George R.R. Martin wasn’t always a fan of adaptations of his books, particularlyHouse of the Dragon, where hepublicly criticized the HBO show for straying too far from the source material. To add even more to his ever-growing schedule,Martin is also working on animated spin-offs, in which he recently revealed what other animated shows he has taken inspiration from, and one is particularly surprising.
George R.R. Martin Really Enjoys Love, Death + Robots' Various Animation Styles
Talking toColliderin a recent interview, Martin briefly discussed how much he thoughtNetflix’sBlue Eye Samuraiwas “amazing” and “it was one of the best” he’s ever seen. Staying on the amination topic, Martin was asked what animation he would like hisSong of Ice & Fireuniverse to be like to consider it a success. “Well, if it looked likeBlue Eye Samuraiit would be amazing, but I really do want it to look good. I really enjoyed, over the last few years,Love, Death + Robots” replied Martin, saying that he thought the anthology series adapted “good stories from science fiction”, praising the show’s team for its different animation styles.
Although Martin did say that some episodes might not be suitable for what he would have in mind for his animated spin-offs as “some are very cartoony”, the author thought the series had a lot of “great possibilities there.” Martin also discussed what he thought was the most attractive aspect of doing animation projects as opposed to live-action and that’s the cost. In live-action, having to film in various locations with huge special effects budgets would certainly bring its figures up. “Some of these ideas are so big and so grand, I think that the only way we can really do a good job with them is animation and great animation. You know?”.
“I don’t know if we always succeed. Obviously, any writer has to know that you win some, you lose some, some get rained out. You try to make the story as good as it can be, and some fans will like it, some fans will not like it. You’re always going to get criticism, but you got to keep trying. You got to try to do everyone the best it can possibly be, and sometimes other people disagree with you; there’ll be arguments or whatever.”
Although Martin’s animated spinoffs have yet to be green-lit by HBO, he did write in his personal blog last year that he thought they were “getting close to taking the next step with a couple of them.“Several of the projectsthat have been lined up includeNine VoyagesakaSea Snake, Flea Bottom, and 10,000 Ships. There was also discussion about developing an animated version ofGame of Thronesfor HBO Max, but as yet, further updates on this haven’t been revealed.
