Why was Lady Stoneheart excluded from Game of Thrones? Details revealed

Game of Thrones fans still talk about the missing Lady Stoneheart. David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, the showrunners, left her out, even though George R.R. Martin pushed for her to be in the HBO series.

In the books, she is one of the wildest twists. Catelyn Stark comes back after the Red Wedding, changed and vengeful. Readers were floored when she showed up in A Song of Ice and Fire. So, people kept waiting for her to appear on the show. Season after season, nothing. By the end of eight seasons, a lot of fans felt let down that she never showed up at all.

Leaving out Catelyn Stark’s vengeful, undead form, Lady Stoneheart, sparked a real rift between the show’s creators and George R.R. Martin. Martin said over and over that dropping Lady Stoneheart was the one change he most regrets about the TV adaptation. For him, her absence marked the show’s first big step away from the books.

In 2020, Benioff and Weiss sat down with James Hibberd from Entertainment Weekly and finally talked about their controversial choice. In Hibberd’s behind-the-scenes book, Fire Cannot Kill a Dragon: Game of Thrones and the Official Untold Story of the Epic Series, they explained in detail why they left out one of the most loved and one of the scariest characters from Martin’s fantasy world.

Game of Thrones: The showrunners’ three main reasons for cutting Lady Stoneheart

A still from Game of Thrones (Image via Prime Video)

Benioff and Weiss disclosed that the question of whether Lady Stoneheart would appear in the television series was mildly debated. Weiss explained that when she first appeared as a story, it was one of the most shocking moments in the books, but the showrunners eventually discovered three reasons why excluding her from Game of Thrones was justified in their opinion.

Protecting future book spoilers

The most important reason that Benioff initially gave was deliberately vague, yet it could be the most important. He explained that one of the reasons they did not include Lady Stoneheart in Game of Thrones was that it was part of the material they intended to cover in the books that Martin had not finished, and they did not wish to talk about it publicly.

This argument implies that Martin had discussed upcoming plot points of the character with the showrunners, and they felt that these remaining storylines were better off left to the readers in the final novels. As the final instance of Lady Stoneheart in the published books features her insisting that Brienne of Tarth execute Jaime Lannister, there has been long speculation among the fans on what will become of these characters in the remaining novels.

This omission of a plot by the showrunners perhaps alludes to the fact that the books might radically diverge in establishing a relationship between Jaime and Brienne in a manner unlike that of the Game of Thrones television adaptation.

Preserving the impact of Jon Snow’s resurrection

The second rationale revolved around one of the most crucial scenes of Game of Thrones: the death and resurrection of Jon Snow. Benioff clarified that by Season 3, when Lady Stoneheart would have appeared, they were already aware that Jon Snow was going to be resurrected in Seasons 5 and 6.

The showrunners feared that the impact of death in the series would be reduced through numerous resurrections of major characters. They did not want their narrative ammunition to be exhausted before Jon returned because they believed that the more the character dies, the less serious and affecting the death would be. This choice was indicative of their general philosophy of not wanting to lose the investment in a fantasy world where magic occurs but must not be used to undercut the emotional intensity of loss.

Honoring Michelle Fairley’s powerful Red Wedding performance

The third reason was based on the fact that actress Michelle Fairley had given a heartrending performance in the Game of Thrones’ Red Wedding sequence. Benioff stressed that the last moment of Catelyn was outstanding and that the role played by Fairley was exceptional.

The showrunners believed that the return of the character as a mute, zombified one would diminish returns and would not do justice to both the actress and the iconic scene. The Red Wedding had become one of the most memorable moments in the whole series, perhaps more memorable in the show than in the books because of its savage violence.

The revival of one of the murdered characters, they felt, would nullify the decisive finish and emotional shock with which the scene had struck.

Fans react to Lady Stoneheart's exclusion

A user on Reddit says:

"I would of loved a scene of lady stone heart learning John was not Ned's son. Her husband always stayed faithful to her and he was protecting his sisters son."

Another user added:

"It was one of the big moments in which I started being disappointed by the show. I had so much expectations for 4x10 and was massively let down particularly by her omission (it was my favorite reveal from the books). But yeah considering what happened afterwards I’m almost relieved they didn’t put her in it."

One user suggested:

"They should have mentioned sightings of Lady Stoneheart at various times - but keep the visuals to a distance. Keep her shrouded in mystery so as to not overdo it."