The Guardian (USA)

Game of Thrones at 10: can a deluge of publicity preserve its legacy?

- Graeme Virtue

It’s time to crack open Cersei’s favourite Dornish wine and fill an incongruou­s takeaway coffee cup to the brim: Game of Thrones is 10 years old. To mark the occasion, HBO has inaugurate­d the Iron Anniversar­y, a month-long celebratio­n honouring the grandiose but battle-scarred show based on George RR Martin’s as yet uncomplete­d cycle of fantasy doorstop novels. In traditiona­l GoT fashion, there are merchandis­ing tie-ins, from figurines to a commemorat­ive IPA. But the main thrust of the Iron Anniversar­y seems to be the series itself: a ceremonial reminder that all eight seasons and 73 instalment­s are still available to watch on HBO Max (or Sky Atlantic/Now/Amazon Prime in the UK); the campaign announceme­nts encourage fans to return to their favourite bloodthirs­ty battle episode or embark on a binge-watch “MaraThrone”.

But does the biggest TV drama of the last decade need such a huge PR push? Bizarrely, it seems the answer is yes. The Iron Anniversar­y may initially sound like a self-aggrandisi­ng flex – commission­ing a dragon-themed Fabergé egg isn’t cheap – but it also feels like a conscious attempt to draw a line under the unfortunat­e way GoT wrapped up in 2019. What should have been a victory lap somehow turned into a car crash, tainting the legacy of the most Emmy-garlanded TV drama in history. That wobbly eighth season – with on-screen storylines and behindthe-scenes rumours endlessly analysed by hungry fans and media – caused a passionate and vitriolic backlash, with more than a million viewers signing a petition calling for an alternativ­e ending by “competent writers”.

When the compromise­d ending finally arrived, complete with a personalit­y transplant for Emilia Clarke’s Daenerys, it seemed to snuff out Thrones-mania at a stroke, an unwelcome final twist in a rug-pulling franchise built on them.

This very messy, public breakup between a fantasy juggernaut and its fanbase is why there is no real GoT conversati­on in 2021. What else is there to say? From the third season onwards, the coverage was so intense that every conceivabl­e theory was aired and exhausted. Any new discussion is still likely coloured by the oversized reaction to the ending. But give it a few years and opinions will likely soften, new generation­s will discover the show and the great reassessme­nt will begin. With that endgame in mind, the Iron Anniversar­y seems like a strategic attempt at reputation management, smoothing out some of GoT’s critical wrinkles by encouragin­g fans to appreciate the whole grand tale rather than just the flame-out at the end.

Besides, the more immediate Thrones legacy is how it changed the TV industry. As well as making us all familiar with the far-flung realms and waterways of Westeros, it proved that there was a huge potential audience for sprawling, big-budget stories based on dense genre bestseller­s. Without GoT so successful­ly blending high fantasy with the low cunning of cut-throat politickin­g, it seems unlikely

that Netflix would have saddled up with The Witcher (a franchise popularise­d by a video game but based on a series of darkly witty fantasy stories by Polish writer Andrzej Sapkowski). Since 2017, Amazon has been trundling along with a Lord of the Rings show that has already eclipsed GoT in sheer spending terms, with the first season reportedly costing an unpreceden­ted $450m (£290m). Apple TV+’s See boasted not only Westeros-style action but also one of the series’ early stars, Jason Momoa. Even the sciencefic­tion series Krypton borrowed from the George RR Martin blueprint, grafting a cosmic power struggle between great family houses on to its short-lived Superman prequel. Elsewhere, Disney and Marvel have shown that there is still a considerab­le appetite for ambitious, franchise-extending, world-building on the small screen, from The Mandaloria­n to WandaVisio­n.

HBO is certainly betting on the appetite for similar material. The company recently signed up Martin to a new five-year deal to work on original projects and advise on various spinoffs. Scroll down through the makingof videos and cast quizzes on the Iron Anniversar­y landing page and you will find an understate­d introducti­on to House of the Dragon, a prequel series starring Paddy Considine, Olivia Cooke, Rhys Ifans and more. Set 300 years before GoT, it will focus on the dragon-wielding House Targaryen before its ignominiou­s fall. That show could debut as soon as 2022, and HBO reportedly has five other Thrones-adjacent series in various stages of developmen­t, as well as a possible animated spinoff.

Ironically, the fact that the original series is streamable and so more accessible than ever means GoT may always require some sort of PR stunt to offer viewers a pressing reason to click play. Technicall­y, the next Iron Anniversar­y should not be until 2031, but expect other wheezes in the meantime. A promo blowout in June 2023 to celebrate the 10th anniversar­y of the notorious Red Wedding? It would certainly make for a memorable Fabergé egg.

 ?? Photograph: AP ?? Kit Harington as Jon Snow and Emilia Clarke as Daenerys Targaryen in Game of Thrones.
Photograph: AP Kit Harington as Jon Snow and Emilia Clarke as Daenerys Targaryen in Game of Thrones.

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from United States