We might preserve listening to new particulars about why the ending of HBO’s Recreation of Thrones was disappointing endlessly — or not less than so long as the present’s creators, David Benioff, and D.B. Weiss are nonetheless working. In an interview with The Wall Road Journal whereas selling their new collection, Netflix’s 3 Physique Drawback, the 2 talked about they wished to complete Recreation of Thrones off with a collection of films, however HBO and AT&T had different concepts. A lot, a lot worse concepts.
The showrunning duo stated they wished to complete off the final two seasons of Recreation of Thrones as three films, as a substitute of the 13 complete episodes we ended up with. Whereas this may not have fastened many followers’ complaints of a rushed ending, it appears HBO had a distinct purpose for nixing the thought: its identify. In accordance with Benioff and Weiss, the manager group reminded them that they had been making exhibits for the “Residence Field Workplace” not the “Away Field Workplace.”
However whereas this juicy bit of knowledge is yet one more fascinating perception into the very unusual ending of HBO’s greatest collection, it isn’t even probably the most baffling and dispiriting reveal within the interview.
That honor belongs to the one who apparently instructed Benioff and Weiss movie Recreation of Thrones vertically, so it will be simpler to observe on telephones. The remark got here from an government at AT&T, the then mother or father firm of Warner Bros., which owns HBO. The corporate additionally reportedly mentioned creating mini-episodes of the present that might be extra “snackable” — so shorter and simpler to observe for cell viewers.
Most up-to-date discussions of Warner Bros. and HBO have revolved across the choices made by David Zaslav, who took over as CEO after the corporate merged with Discovery in 2022. Since then, Zaslav has radically reduce down on the corporate’s emphasis on the Max streaming platform (which he oversaw the renaming of) and elevated its deal with theatrical distribution and actuality present content material. Extra controversially, the corporate has additionally determined to shelve a number of films, like Batgirl, Salem’s Lot, and Coyote vs Acme, whereas promoting streaming rights for different films to rivals like Netflix.
However all this dredging up of ridiculous conferences and requests by Benioff and Weiss is a reasonably good reminder that Warner Bros. administration has made questionable choices for a very long time. Contemplating shifting HBO’s flagship present right into a mobile-friendly format or making bite-sized episodes might sound ridiculous, however it is sensible when you’ve got a cellphone firm attempting to get probably the most out of its struggling leisure department. Precisely why AT&T would assume its clients couldn’t rotate their telephones is a distinct, harder query.
Even when the studio now referred to as Warner Bros. Discovery remains to be on shaky floor, with shelved films and a Friday inventory market downturn after its earnings report, not less than its present emphasis is on main franchises and theatrical releases, as a substitute of vertical video.