HBO's Game of Thrones took a lot of liberties with George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire saga, but mostly stayed faithful to the author's work. One major unexpected omission was Lady Stoneheart, a resurrected Catelyn Stark who makes only a couple of appearances in the books and seems intent on revenge against those who orchestrated the Red Wedding (understandable).
In upcoming book Fire Cannot Kill a Dragon, showrunners David Benioff and Dan Weiss break their silence on why the fan-favorite Lady Stoneheart wasn't included in their TV series.
"There was never really much debate about [including Lady Stoneheart]," Benioff says. "There is that one great scene." Weiss adds: "That was the only debate. The scene where she first shows up is one of the best ‘holy s---’ moments in the books. I think that scene is where the public response came from."
Surprisingly, one big reason Lady Stoneheart was missing is because the executive producers wanted to protect what Martin has planned for her in the books.
"Part of the reason we didn’t want to put it in had to do with things coming up in George’s books that we don’t want to spoil [by discussing them]," Benioff explains, not making much sense when they would obviously later reveal who ends up on the Iron Throne...unless Martin has a different ending in mind!
They also felt that using Lady Stoneheart risked lessening the impact of the Red Wedding and Jon Snow's eventual resurrection, with Benioff concluding by noting, "Michelle Fairley is such a great actress, to bring her back as a zombie who doesn’t speak felt like diminishing returns."
That's a sentiment disappointed fans are unlikely to agree with, but at least it's now been cleared up.
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