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After joining Screen Rant in January 2025, Guy became a Senior Features Writer in March of the same year, and now specializes in features about classic TV shows. With several years' experience writing for and editing TV, film and music publications, his areas of expertise include a wide range of genres, from comedies, animated series, and crime dramas, to Westerns and political thrillers.
Although the final season of HBO’s landmark fantasy TV series Game of Thrones is widely scorned by fans and critics alike, author and franchise creator George R. R. Martin has just revealed that it could have been so much worse. Martin’s revelation comes off the back of news that a new spinoff TV show about Arya Stark is in development.
Game of Thrones came to an end with a final season notorious for its pacing problems and disappointing character arcs. Yet, this ending may well have saved fans from an even more devastating conclusion to the story, if the author of the novel series on which Game of Thrones is based, had things his way.
George R. R. Martin hadn’t finished writing his series A Song of Ice and Fire when it came time for the TV show it inspired to reach a climactic end. Therefore, HBO and the writing team behind the show were forced to come up with their own ending. Game of Thrones season 8 was received badly as a result.
Many viewers complained about the fate which befell the likes of Daenerys Targaryen, Jaime and Cersei Lannister, and Jon Snow, in the show’s finale episode. However, their complaints would likely have been even bigger if Tyrion Lannister and Sansa Stark had been killed off, as George R. R. Martin originally intended for the climax of his novels.
George R.R. Martin Was Considering Killing Sansa
INSTARimages.comIn an exciting update about the progress of his novel The Winds of Winter, the penultimate of seven books in his series A Song of Ice and Fire, George R. R. Martin has let slip his initial plan for how the Game of Thrones saga was supposed to end. An interview published by The Hollywood Reporter quotes Martin as follows:
“I was going to kill more people. Not the ones they killed [in the show]. They made it more of a happy ending. I don’t see a happy ending for Tyrion. His whole arc has been tragic from the first. I was going to have Sansa die, but she’s been so appealing in the show, maybe I’ll let her live…”
It comes as no surprise to any fans of Martin’s novels or the Game of Thrones TV franchise that he would have done things differently from how the show ends things in Westeros. But the revelation George R. R. Martin was planning to kill off fan-favorites Tyrion Lannister and Sansa Stark comes as a major shock.
The endings that Sansa and Tyrion actually got in Game of Thrones were two of the rare bright spots in an altogether unsatisfying conclusion to the series. If George R. R. Martin were to mete out a more negative ending to these characters, he’d risk alienating fans even more than the TV show’s season 8 ending managed to.
Sansa's Popularity In The Show May Have Changed GRRM's Mind
It’s interesting to note that Martin prefixes his plan for A Song of Ice and Fire’s end with the speculative past-tense phrase “I was going to”. He then references what actually happened in Game of Thrones season 8, instead, which he refers to as a “happy ending”.
Watching how the show’s ending played out has seemingly influenced the author’s plans for his own series conclusion. It may also be the case that George R. R. Martin has had a change of heart about killing off Sansa because of her popularity among fans of the franchise, who generally regard her as one of the best characters in Game of Thrones.
From her beginnings as a spoilt child with no semblance of understanding about the harsh realities of life, Sansa evolved into arguably the best example of a ruling monarch in Game of Thrones. Her strength of character, sound judgment and wisdom far beyond her years made her the model against whom other kings and queens could be judged.
This evolution of Sansa into the fully independent Queen of the North is made all the more impressive by how unsuitable for the role she was at first, and by the tragedy of losing her father at such a young age. Sansa’s development would have all been for nothing if she were killed off at the end of her journey.
Game Of Thrones' Ending Was Happier Than The One GRRM Planned
For fans who found it too much to take, Game of Thrones season 8 would have been even worse if George R. R. Martin had written his novels as he initially planned to. Those would decried the rapid descent of Daenerys Targaryen into madness, and the sticky ending she met via Jon Snow, would have lamented Sansa’s killing even more.
Likewise, anyone who were disappointed by the fate which befell Jaime and Cersei Lannister would no doubt have felt even worse if Tyrion were cruelly disposed of, too. Fans needed at least one character worthy of a happy ending to get their just desserts, and Tyrion was in many ways the best candidate within the House of Lannister.
As rushed and anticlimactic as the somewhat ambiguous end to his story arc turned out to be, it served him far better than the tragedy George R. R. Martin previously had in store for him. Martin may well follow through with some form of tragic climax for Tyrion, though, which is strongly implied by his statement, “I don’t see a happy ending for Tyrion.”
Why Killing Sansa In ASOIAF Would Be A Mistake
Even if George R. R. Martin ultimately sees Tyrion Lannister as a tragic figure, Game of Thrones fans should at least take solace from the author’s apparent change of heart in relation to Sansa Stark’s fate. It looks as though actor Sophie Turner won’t be getting the Sansa death scene she’s after in a spinoff series anytime soon.
Martin killing Sansa off in A Song of Ice and Fire’s final two novels, regardless of the context, would be a huge mistake, which would undermine the sense that there’s at least some capacity for hope in Westeros. As the old saying goes, it’s the hope that kills you. An optimistic trajectory to Sansa’s story accentuates the tragedy elsewhere.
In the case of her father, Ned Stark, for example, we’re left to wonder what might have been. Meanwhile, we can compare the downward spiral of Daenerys Targaryen to the positive example of a Westeros queen that Sansa sets.
Fans have been waiting for George R. R. Martin to finish his A Song of Ice and Fire series for 15 years, now, during which time the entirety of Game of Thrones has come and gone. When he does finally complete his magnum opus, let’s hope that at least some of its heroes are still around to celebrate the ending.
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Game Of Thrones
10/10
Release Date 2011 - 2019-00-00
Showrunner David Benioff, D.B. Weiss
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Isaac Hempstead Wright
Brandon Bran Stark
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Created by George R.R. Martin
First TV Show Game Of Thrones
Cast Emilia Clarke, Peter Dinklage, Sophie Turner, Kit Harington, Lena Headey, Maisie Williams, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Iain Glen, John Bradley, Alfie Allen, Conleth Hill, Liam Cunningham, Gwendoline Christie, Aidan Gillen, Isaac Hempstead-Wright, Rory McCann, Nathalie Emmanuel, Jerome Flynn, Rhys Ifans, Matt Smith, Graham McTavish, Fabien Frankel, Steve Toussaint, Eve Best, Emma D'Arcy, Matthew Needham, Olivia Cooke, Milly Alcock, Emily Carey
TV Show(s) Game Of Thrones, House of the Dragon, A Knight Of The Seven Kingdoms
Game of Thrones is a multimedia franchise created by George R.R. Martin. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire is the basis for the award-winning HBO series Game of Thrones, which lasted for eight seasons. After the incredibly divisive final season of Game of Thrones, the series was followed up by the prequel series House of the Dragon, which also received critical acclaim.
English (US) ·