Forbes article that makes it crystal clear that the decision to end the series so abruptly with two short seasons falls on D&D alone
https://www.forbes.com/sites/paultas.../#6810a291788a
Quote:
Some of the problems are specific decisions the showrunners made, now free of the guiding light of Martin’s books, but the further we’ve gotten into these final seasons, it has become clear to almost everyone that a core problem with the ending of Game of Thrones is that the idea that the final two seasons should be 7 episodes, then a year break, then 6 episodes.
Sure, we may get to where we’re going and it could be a passable ending. But there is not benefit to arranging the show this way, instead of having a more standard ending with two or three seasons that were the traditional ten episodes in length. No benefit to anyone except the showrunners, David Benioff and D.B. Weiss who want to move on to other projects.
No one wanted this except them. HBO wanted more. Here’s an EW interview from 2015, back when the showrunners were threatening to end the series after seven seasons:
“This is the hard part of what we do,” sighs HBO programming president Michael Lombardo. “We started this journey with David and Dan. It’s their vision. Would I love the show to go 10 years as both a fan and a network executive? Absolutely…If they weren’t comfortable going beyond seven seasons, I trust them implicitly and trust that’s the right decision—as horrifying as that is to me.”
|
Seems awfully short sighted to me. These two guys were going to be known for creating one of the greatest TV series of all time, but now they're the ones who intentionally rushed the ending and turned the series into a mess because they wanted out