The final season of Game of Thrones was not everyone's cup of tea, to say the least, with fans divided over whether it did justice to the characters and the story.
However, according to the series' writer, it could have been very different.
George R.R. Martin has revealed that the original plan was to stop at the end of season seven, with the saga's finale culminating in three separate movies.
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Speaking to German publication Welt, the 71-year-old said: "At the moment, it is not my place to decide because the movie rights for Game of Thrones belong to HBO. Besides from that, we actually considered this option; David Benioff and Dan Weiss, the makers behind the TV show, wanted to finish the saga with three big movies after Season 7.
"Game of Thrones was supposed to end in cinema. It was seriously discussed four to five years ago."
So why did this vision never come to pass?
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"Because HBO didn't want that," Martin told the publication.
He explained: "The executives said, 'We produce TV shows, we are not in the cinema business'. And if HBO does make a movie, like the movie based on Deadwood, they only produce it to show it on TV - not on the big screen."
Adding: "Everything is changing at the moment. What is being shown at the cinema right now? Everything is mixing up. Nowadays we don't know where the lines between cinema, streaming services and television are."
Now, while many of us are struggling to cope without our weekly fix of White Walkers and dragons, there is good news.
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That's because last week we were given our first indication of when we can expect the upcoming Game of Thrones prequel series about the Targaryen family.
HBO programming chief Casey Bloys told Variety that 'his best guess' is that House of the Dragon is likely going to debut in 2022.
Asked why HBO dropped the other Game of Thrones prequel series, starring Naomi Watts, Casey said that these things happen all the time with TV shows.
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Bloys told Variety: "Pilots - sometimes they come together, sometimes they don't. And I would say that was very much the case here. There's nothing I would point to and say 'Oh, this was the problem'.
"That [prequel] was 8,000 years before the current show, so it required a lot more invention.
"One of the benefits of House of the Dragon is there was a text from George and there was a little bit more of a roadmap. [Goldman's prequel] did have more challenges in terms of establishing a world, but I think she handled that beautifully... there wasn't one glaring thing."
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