James Hibberd has written a book telling the entire behind the scenes story of Game Of Thrones, from the very first meetings to the show becoming one of the biggest TV events on the planet. Fire Cannot Kill A Dragon will apparently reveal all of the secrets of the smash hit series.
Hibberd has written extensively about the book for Entertainment Weekly and in doing so he revealed one of the questions all fans of the books ask when thinking about the TV show. Why did they leave the character of Lady Stoneheart out of the TV version?
If you haven’t read the books and plan to get around to it one day then it’s probably best to stop reading now. Similarly we will also mention some of the most shocking scenes in the show so if you are yet to watch it then we suggest leaving now.
Still here? Good. Lady Stoneheart is a resurrected and vengeful Catelyn Stark, who was betrayed and murdered at the Red Wedding in the third season of the show.
She is first revealed at the end of A Storm of Swords. In A Feast for Crows she is the leader of the Brotherhood Without Banners. Clearly she was going to be a big deal in the as-yet unwritten final books. Benioff says:
“There was never really much debate about [including Lady Stoneheart],there is that one great scene. That was the only debate.
The scene where she first shows up is one of the best ‘holy s—’ moments in the books. I think that scene is where the public response came from. But then…”
Hibberd expands to say there were three reasons. Firstly that the TV show would then have been forced to reveal what author George RR Martin has planned for her in his forthcoming books. Secondly, Jon Snow was going to be resurrected by the Red Woman. Too many resurrections and suddenly you are a comic book. Benioff confirmed:
“We knew we had Jon Snow’s resurrection coming up. Too many resurrections start to diminish the impact of characters dying. We wanted to keep our powder dry for that.”
The third reason was that the Red Wedding was such a stand-out scene and so powerful, shocking and sets a tone with a sense of danger for all characters for the entire rest of the show, that they did not want to dilute this impact.
They also did not want to ask actress Michelle Fairley to remain silent for the rest of her time on the show:
“Catelyn’s last moment was so fantastic, and Michelle is such a great actress, to bring her back as a zombie who doesn’t speak felt like diminishing returns…”
Author Martin says he pushed for the inclusion of the character but the showrunners held firm and in the end Martin was pleased because it has given him freedom in his writing to go forward.
Hibberd’s book, Fire Cannot Kill a Dragon, is available now at Amazon and all book retailers.
