Game of Thrones: How a single George R.R. Martin question sealed HBO’s deal

Game of Thrones premiered in 2011 and changed how we viewed fantasy series. With intrinsic political plotlines and blending them with betrayals, battles, and death, the show ruled television and helped in making a clear path for fantasy shows that came after it.

Further, the story of how the showrunners of the HBO series convinced George R.R. Martin to let them adapt it as a series is as interesting as the plot of Game of Thrones. In a Variety interview in 2015, showrunners D.B. Weiss and David Benioff shared that it was one answer that the duo gave to Martin's question that convinced him to let them make the TV show.

The question was about Jon Snow’s parentage, and the screenwriter duo answered it correctly, impressing Martin, which got them the permission to adapt his novel series, A Song of Ice and Fire, into the HBO fantasy show.

Game of Thrones: Jon Snow’s parentage became an important point for the show’s inception

The audience who have watched Game of Thrones or read Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire have definitely faced the question of who Jon Snow’s parents were. Since Season 6, Episode 10, speculations about Jon being Lyanna Stark’s son began to spread throughout the fandom.

Later, in the Season 7 finale and Season 8 premiere episode of Game of Thrones, all the details about Jon Snow being the legitimate heir of the Iron Throne were revealed, as he was the son of Lyanna Stark and Rhaegar Targaryen.

This single answer was what gave Weiss and Benioff permission to adapt the novel for a TV series. In the Variety interview, the duo shared that George R.R. Martin understood that they were huge fans of his novels.

Weiss shared:

"I think with us, he understood that we didn’t have to fake anything. We had become instantly and genuinely obsessed with his books to the point where we knew lots and lots about the minutia of them — and then he asked us the question about Jon Snow’s parentage."

He continued:

"Maybe if we had gotten it wrong, he would have let us do it anyway. It was still obvious that we love this, and that we wanted to do it more than anything in the world, and that we would respect it and honor it. I think getting (the answer) right probably helped. It’s crazy to think about how long ago that was, and that I can still see who was sitting where."

Therefore, by correctly answering who Jon Snow’s mother is, the showrunners brought Martin’s fictional world on screen, which still has more to be explored with shows like A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms and House of the Dragon, and expanding the Game of Thrones lore further.

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