Game of Thrones' final season was massively divisive, leading to petitions for a remake. We don't expect that to happen, and House of the Dragon has mostly managed to wash away the bad taste left by its predecessor's last year on HBO.
While it remains unclear how much George R.R. Martin's last book in the Song of Ice and Fire series will differ, he is thought to have given showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss a rough outline of his plans, likely meaning Bran Stark is ending up on that Iron Throne, whether fans like it or not.
Season 8 also saw Jon Snow kill Daenerys Targaryen, another blow to Game of Thrones viewers who had followed the stories of both characters for close to a decade.
Talking to Josh Horowitz (via SFFGazette.com), showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss admitted the negative reaction to the series finale took them by surprise and, while they expected it to be divisive, it seems the 3 Body Problem duo didn't anticipate how much it would split opinions.
"I think we knew it would be controversial, I think we hoped that it would be a little more 50/50," Benioff said. "I think you hope for a better proportion of...we definitely didn't want it to be quite so much hate. We were prepared for some of it."
Weiss adds, "I guess I hadn't really taken into account the network effects. The network's effects, it can help the show when they're working in your favor as a positive feedback loop. It’s hypocritical to love it when it's blowing in your direction and to decide it's the end of the world when it's going the other way."
"But yeah, I think maybe that was the part of it that we hadn't really accounted for, in knowing that some people were going to like it and some people weren't," he concludes.
In the years which have passed since Game of Thrones aired its eighth and final season, the negativity surrounding how the story ended has only worsened. Fans have largely given up on their quest to push HBO into remaking it, with the hope now being that Martin's final novel - should it ever see the light of day - might somehow make things up for the show's missteps.
House of the Dragon returns to HBO later this year with its second season and a host of other prequels (and sequels) are believed to be in various stages of development at the cable network.