George R.R. Martin, the author behind A Song of Ice and Fire, the novel series which was adapted into Game of Thrones and House of the Dragon by HBO, has said most film and TV show adaptations are worse than the original source material.
In a blog post, Martin broached the subject of adaptations by referencing a panel he spoke at with Sandman creator Neil Gaiman in 2022, and though he didn't comment on the Netflix adaptation of that comic book series, he did say "very little has changed since then" in regards to adaptations. "If anything, things have gotten worse," Martin added.
"Everywhere you look, there are more screenwriters and producers eager to take great stories and 'make them their own,'" he continued. "It does not seem to matter whether the source material was written by Stan Lee, Charles Dickens, Ian Fleming, Roald Dahl, Ursula K. Le Guin, J.R.R. Tolkien, Mark Twain, Raymond Chandler, Jane Austen, or, well, anyone.
"No matter how major a writer it is, no matter how great the book, there always seems to be someone on hand who thinks he can do better, eager to take the story and 'improve' on it. 'The book is the book, the film is the film,' they will tell you, as if they were saying something profound. Then they make the story their own."
Martin then shared his thoughts on most of these adaptations, though didn't say which category Game of Thrones, House of the Dragon, or the handful of other incoming spin-offs fall into. "They never make it better, though," he said. "999 times out of 1,000, they make it worse."
Game of Thrones ran for eight seasons and eventually overtook what Martin had written in the books (the final two aren't finished yet), with critics noticing a drop off in quality after that point. House of the Dragon, which has a second and third season on the way, is based on Fire and Blood, a single book covering a general history of the Targaryen family. An adaptation of Martin's novella series, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, is also on the way, while another show will adapt just a fraction of Fire and Blood focusing on Aegon the Conqueror.
Martin rounded out his post by commenting on Shōgun, a TV show adaptation of James Clavell's 1975 novel that was widely praised by critics. He agreed with them. "Once in a while, though, we do get a really good adaptation of a really good book, and when that happens, it deserves applause," Martin said.
Adaptations are a mainstay amongst entertainment today. 2024 blockbuster Dune 2, The Witcher series on Netflix, Disney's Percy Jackson and the Olympians, and many more are all pulled from novels. Elsewhere on Netflix viewers can find One Piece, based on a manga, and Avatar: The Last Airbender, a live action adaptation of a cartoon. Marvel's (perhaps fading) domination of the cinema world obviously comes from comics too.
Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelance reporter. He'll talk about The Witcher all day.
