


Their "series" of Star Wars movies will be the next major outing for one of cinema's biggest franchises post- Rise of Skywalker, while they're also the subject of a bidding war between Netflix, Amazon, Disney, Apple, HBO/WarnerMedia and Comcast. Helen Sloan/HBO Sky We earn a commission for products purchased through some links in this article. It's certainly interesting to note that, while the television series was already moving away from Martin's books and including more and more original material, it was after production of the sixth season – at which point the five completed novels had been more or less exhausted – that Benioff and Weiss made public their decision to wrap up the TV show. Though a little of this sort of thing is inevitable, even desirable, as a TV show heads towards its final episodes, Game of Thrones' harshest critics have suggested that, without George RR Martin's books to use as source material, the show's last 13 episodes have felt like a more cartoonish, less nuanced version of the series. The previous season also felt markedly different to the six that had preceded it – with characters suddenly zipping back and forth across Westeros at record speed, it was clear that showrunners David Benioff and Dan 'DB' Weiss had put the pedal to the metal, accelerating their storytelling after years of taking a more considered and contemplative approach.

This isn't something unique to season eight, either. Related: Game of Thrones' John Bradley admits he wanted the show to continue into season nine
