Westworld showrunners reveal George R.R. Martin once pushed for a Game of Thrones world

(Image credit: HBO)

We may have gotten a surprise Westworld season 3 crossover in the shape of Game of Thrones showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss (plus Drogon!) showing up in Sunday’s episode, but the show’s creators have revealed that George R.R. Martin wanted to go bigger, even pitching an entire world dedicated to Westeros.

“George had consistently since the first season said, ‘We’ve got to do a tie-in with Game of Thrones,’” co-showrunner Jonathan Nolan told Variety. “People forget that George was originally a TV writer and he came up in the TV world in which you’d occasionally have these crossover shows, which the fans would fucking freak out over. So George had always been pitching the crossover show.”

How would it have played out? Lisa Joy said it would have been “like a ‘full situation world’. Game of Thrones world or something!”

Game of Thrones may have ended with a whimper, but the thought of Maeve and Dolores going face-to-face with Dany, Arya, and the Night King would have surely included the sorts of violent delights (and violent ends) that both shows revel in.

Instead, this week’s Westworld episode included an equally unlikely nod to the fantasy HBO series. As Bernard and Stubbs roam the halls of the tech labs, two workers – played by Benioff and Weiss – concoct a plan to smuggle the dragon host, Drogon, out to Costa Rica.

“I pitched it to them, as sort of, ‘How would you guys feel about this?’” Nolan explained of the Easter egg scene. “And they thought it was great fun.”

We’ve had Westworld, War World, Medieval World, and even the real world. What’s one more world to add to the simulation?

Here are all the new TV shows you have to look forward to in 2020 and beyond...

Bradley Russell

I'm the Senior Entertainment Writer here at 12DOVE, focusing on news, features, and interviews with some of the biggest names in film and TV. On-site, you'll find me marveling at Marvel and providing analysis and room temperature takes on the newest films, Star Wars and, of course, anime. Outside of GR, I love getting lost in a good 100-hour JRPG, Warzone, and kicking back on the (virtual) field with Football Manager. My work has also been featured in OPM, FourFourTwo, and Game Revolution.

Latest in Adventure Shows
MrBeast and Beast Games
Amazon's Beast Games might be the most expensive TV season of all time as MrBeast admits he lost "tens of millions" on the reality series
Iñaki Godoy as Monkey D. Luffy stretching his cheek during season one of the Netflix series One Piece.
Filming on One Piece season 2 has reportedly wrapped, which gives us our best clue yet as to when it'll land on Netflix
One Piece
One Piece creator says season 2's newcomers are the "perfect choice" after meeting them during filming
The cast of Outer Banks
Hit Netflix show Outer Banks with a stellar Rotten Tomatoes score announces it will end with next season
One Piece
New behind-the-scenes look at One Piece season 2 reveals first episode title
One Piece
One Piece season 2 is now filming, and Netflix has released a special BTS video to celebrate
Latest in News
Balatro
Balatro creator started "properly playing the game myself about a week before launch" and had "a pretty emotional moment" where he realized it's "actually fun"
Death Stranding 2 Collector's Edition
Hideo Kojima reveals Death Stranding 2: On the Beach release date, and the Collector's Edition includes exactly what I predicted it would
Kingmakers
Kingmakers is a strategy game about taking on medieval armies with a gun, but its devs thought the giant mech was too much
The Witcher 3 lead says "not many games" were trying to match the RPG back in 2015, and that meant "there was a risk" to making it in the first place
The Blood of Dawnwalker
The Witcher 3 dev says his new vampire RPG Blood of Dawnwalker wants to challenge genre conventions, but only if "we're changing them to actually achieve some goal"
Daredevil recap: The Defenders
Marvel fans are discussing which of the Netflix series characters would have survived the Blip