Ahead of the premiere of House of the Dragon, original author George R. R. Martin has expressed his frustration about the original Game of Thrones series getting cut short. After eight seasons, Game of Thrones ended controversially with many fans critical of the final episodes. One common complaint was that the final season felt "rushed" with every major storyline reaching a sudden conclusion.

Martin seems to agree with that sentiment, feeling that Game of Thrones needed to be much longer to end the series properly. Speaking about the show in an interview with the Wall Street Journal (per Variety), Martin reflected on Game of Thrones' eight-season run. He laments how he tried to get up to 13 seasons, insisting that it needed at least ten full seasons, but none of that was up to him.

“I was saying it needs to be 10 seasons at least and maybe 12, 13. I lost that one... I had no contribution to the later seasons except, you know, inventing the world, the story and all the characters. I believe I have more influence now [on ‘House of the Dragon’] than I did on the original show.”

Related: Game of Thrones: Every Major House in Westeros, Ranked

Will House of the Dragon Go Ten Seasons?

House of the Dragon
HBO

As Martin notes, he is more heavily involved with the brand new spinoff series, House of the Dragon. The first season will consist of ten episodes and it's not yet clear how long the show will go on, as it likely depends upon viewership and critical reception. Season 2 hasn't been greenlit at this time, but we can presume that there will be more seasons to come if season 1 is a hit. Will that go up to ten seasons? That's not clear, but the series showrunners do have an endgame already in mind.

"We have a very, very precise idea of where we wanna go with it, but we can't tell you," co-showrunner Miguel Sapochnik told Comicbook.com. "I think that the important thing is that this is a... Think of this as an Episode IV, the Star Wars Episode IV. So it's kind of, we're in the middle of a history that is rich and full of stories to tell and it's a good place to start."

Of what's to come in the immediate future if season 2 happens, co-showrunner Ryan Condal separately told Collider, "I think we have a fairly good plan laid out. Plans like that always have to be fairly broad, yet you have an idea of landmarks, and places that you want to go, and a sense of an end point, which I think is really important, particularly with this story. There’s 170 years of history in front of us, so you have to figure out, at what point do you do lower the curtain on this particular story? We’ve always had a good sense of that. I think we have a good plan for season 2, if HBO is willing and eager to continue telling the story with us."