“It’s just money!”: “Game Of Thrones” makers reveal why they turned down millions for “House Of Dragon” & Co

Since the much-discussed ending of ‘Game Of Thrones’, it has been quite quiet around the two makers of the fantasy hit: David Benioff and DB Weiss are working on new projects in the background. A ‘Star Wars’ movie fell apart, a sci-fi series with ‘3 Body Problem’ coming soon to Netflix. In the run-up to the launch, they reported back to the public with a detailed interview. They also explained, why she has nothing to do with “House of the Dragon“ and other “Game Of Thrones” spin-offs – and they could have easily made a lot of money from it.

It is of course not surprising that the studio behind the ‘Game Of Thrones’ universe, Warner, with broadcaster HBO and streaming service Max, wanted other people for a sequel series to ‘Game Of Thrones’. The ending of the parent series is ultimately very controversial. But Benioff and Weiss still admitted to participating. Whoever launches a franchise often has the right to be credited as an ‘executive producer’ on sequels and spin-offs – even though they have absolutely nothing to do with the new project and don’t have to invest even a second of work. However, this listing involves a payment. But Benioff and Weiss withdrew, in defiance of industry practice that surprised even the other side.

‘HBO was confused’

The explains in the new article, that the two authors denied their contractual right to be mentioned in “House Of The Dragon” and all other “Game Of Thrones” projects. This would have guaranteed them lifetime payments. Because not only would they have directly benefited from every new project (and with current plans there will be new ‘Game Of Thrones’ series for decades to come), but also from every recycling of all titles, every sale abroad, to a streaming service, etc. With such a mega-franchise with many projects likely to have a major international impact, seven-figure sums can come together quickly.

“HBO was quite confused. I remember her lawyer saying to us, “But it’s just money. We’ll just pay you! ”Benioff explains the surprise her rejection brought.

But simply being paid like that was not in the minds of the two creators of the series, as his colleague DB Weiss said explained: “I don’t think there is such a thing as free money. “For us, especially when our name was on it, even though we were completely distant and disengaged, it felt like the burden that came with that distant approach — with success or failure or anything in between — wasn’t worth it.” and Benioff So they didn’t want people to associate the new series with them and attribute it to them in some way, even though they had nothing to do with it creatively.

Instead of fantasy, now sci-fi: ‘3 Body Problem’ soon on Netflix

According to their own statements, they haven’t even seen “House Of The Dragon” yet. In any case, they wanted to distance themselves somewhat from fantasy and consciously did not want to stage another fantasy project. Instead, David Benioff and DB Weiss made the science fiction novel adaptation “3 Body Problem” one of the potential highlights of the series in 2024. If you want to note other highlights of the series in 2024, we recommend the current episode of Moviepilot’s Streamgewer podcast. There, colleagues talk in detail about the new starts for this year:

“3 body problemaka “The Three Suns” starts on Netflix on March 21, 2024. Based on Liu Cixin’s ‘Trisolaris’ novel series, aliens made contact with humanity many years ago. Because their own planet is sinking. So they chose Earth as their new home and began the long journey there. In the present, mysterious events slowly reveal that the aliens have already made preparations for their takeover. Among other things, there are several groups of human co-conspirators already preparing their conquest…