There are a lot of characters from George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire series that have not made their way onto the small screen. Chief among these are characters like Lady Stoneheart and Victarian Greyjoy. While Game of Thrones showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss have traditionally stayed mum about characters like Lady Stoneheart, they recently shared some information about characters we haven’t seen yet, noting that the show could still return to characters that have been skipped.
Here’s what Benioff had to say in the recent interview with EW.
People will complain about things because they don’t know what’s coming up ahead. ‘Why haven’t we seen this guy?’ And I think it will be easier once everything is out and it’s 70 hours. Not that people shouldn’t complain—that’s why God invented the Internet—but I think we’d be better able to have that argument later. Sometimes we’re going in a different order or telling a different story. We think the story will all make sense at the end. Otherwise it will be eight wasted years.
There’s a lot of words in that quote, but Benioff seems to be saying that some characters we haven’t yet seen might still come into play, while others are very much out of the picture. This would explain how Michelle Farley could say that Lady Stoneheart is definitely not going to be a thing on Game of Thrones while still leaving readers’ hopes alive for other characters—like Coldhands—to come into play.
Headed into Season 5, Game of Thrones already has plans to introduce a slew of characters, including Doran Martell, the Sand Snakes, Areo Hotah, Hizdar zo Loraq and the High Sparrow. That’s a ton of new characters set to be introduced in the 10-episode season, and Game of Thrones will still need to catch audiences up on what Sansa and Littlefinger, Cersei, Jaime, Brienne and Pod, Arya, Daenerys, Tyrion, Varys, Jorah, Jon Snow, Roose Bolton, Theon Greyjoy, Stannis Baratheon, Melisandre and many, many more are up to during the new season. It would be impossible for David Benioff and D.B. Weiss to fit every single character from George R.R. Martin’s novels into the plot of the TV series and create a show that is both fluid and exciting.
So far, beyond excluding characters and plotlines, Game of Thrones has also gone out of the way to change the trajectories of some of the characters. That will especially become prominent in the new season, as Jaime heads to Dorne and more characters will get killed off that are alive in the books. Luckily, Benioff and Weiss seem to have a good grasp on where their story is going and what characters and plotlines they need to focus on the most as the show continues moving forward.
HBO’s Game of Thrones returns to the schedule on April 12 at 9 p.m. ET.
