Shots fired?
Robert Kirkman, creator and producer of The Walking Dead, recently sat down with Rolling Stone to talk about the future of the show as well as the comic it’s based on. He also had some thoughts on the future of rival television program Game of Thrones, which is now moving into territory beyond what author George R.R. Martin’s books have covered.
It doesn’t sit well with Kirkman that the Martin spilled the beans of what’s to come in the books to showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, potentially ruining the experience of discovering the big series-ending reveals when (if?) the final books in the series are released. He’s on record as saying he doesn’t want the Walking Dead show to ruin any comic plot points not yet written and he’s “disappointed” in Martin for letting it happen on GoT.
I would never do that. That’s the one thing I’m disappointed in George R.R. Martin for doing. He should have just been like, Fuck you. You make it up now, I’ll get to mine when I’m ready.
Benioff and Weiss has responded to the critique in the past by saying that the show is so different than the books that even major reveals won’t ruin the experience for readers when they get the chance to experience them on the page.
It doesn’t sound like Kirkman was trying to take a shot at Martin, only expressing his disappointment as a fan. However, Martin has gotten pretty sensitive in recent years about the speed at which he’s writing the remaining books. Keep an eye out for his response to the comments, which could end up looking a bit like this:
