Game of Thrones did many things right to become one of the greatest TV shows of all time. However, when the show ended its eight-season run in 2019, many fans were left dissatisfied and disappointed. The series creators David Benioff and D. B. Weiss have regrets, but not necessarily in the way fans might expect. For them, the one mistake they believe they could have redeemed was a season one character who never made a return.
Mord the Jailer makes an appearance in the fifth and sixth episodes of the first season of Game of Thrones. In the service of House Arryn, Mord is in charge of the Sky Cells in the Eyrie, where Tyrion Lannister arrives as a prisoner.
Game of Thrones Creators Reflect On One Change They Would Make
David Benioff and D. B. Weiss have decidedly moved on from Game of Thrones, even declining to join the prequel series House of the Dragon as showrunners. The creators are currently working on their Netflix project, 3 Body Problem. When they appeared for a cover story interview with The Hollywood Reporter (THR), they were asked about their breakthrough series and whether they had any regrets.
Although the question might have been directed at the controversial eighth season, Benioff and Weiss shared an unexpected answer. Their regret dates back to season one when Tyrion Lannister was tormented in a Sky Cell at the Eyrie. Tyrion successfully makes a bargain with his torturer, Mord, played by Ciaran Bermingham.
Peter Dinklage‘s character promises a bribe to the jailer in exchange for helping him get a fair trial. He keeps up his promise that “a Lannister always pays his debts” by tossing a gold-filled purse to Mord as he walks free from the House Arryn. The creators felt that Mord should have been brought back for another appearance in the show.
They revealed that they had an ideal setting for his return in a scene set in a tavern. According to Weiss, Mord could have been the owner of the tavern. They could have added a detail showing him as a small business owner, with not much change in his jailer attitude. The creators called it “an obvious, no-brainer idea”, and not executing it was deemed a mistake. They told THR:
“[Benioff:] One thing I know I wish we could have done is there’s the character Mord the Jailer. [Weiss:] It was a mistake not bringing Mord the Jailer back into it. We always talked about doing it. [Benioff:] And we had the scene for it. There’s a scene set in a tavern… [Weiss:] But we realized too late that Mord could have owned the tavern. We could have had that actor in the background acting exactly the way he did as a jailer, except now as a small-business owner. It was just such an obvious, no-brainer, day-after idea.”
While the creators’ attention to detail is appreciable, it wasn’t a mistake that fans were eager for them to address. It appears that the creators purposefully avoided discussing Emilia Clarke’s Daenerys’s fate at the end of Season 8 and the reception the finale received.
Game of Thrones Creators Avoided Reading Fan Reactions To Season 8 For A Valid Reason
While the Game of Thrones creators faced online criticism for rushing the show’s finale and ruining its end, Benioff and Weiss didn’t delve into all the online public opinions. Even if they concur with some of the criticisms, they opted to move on, realizing that dwelling on the mistakes wouldn’t benefit them, the studio, or the team that worked on the series. Benioff shared with THR about Season 8:
“You can get so bogged down in public opinion that you spend your whole life googling things and trying to find people who felt one way or the other way.”
Weiss continued:
“Even super positive feedback makes you feel weird and teeth-grindy and on edge. There’s a drug quality to the feedback, and as soon as we went cold turkey, the ambient stress level in our lives dropped by about 50 percent overnight.”
Not only did the duo decline the chance to run the prequel series, but they also passed up a huge amount of free money. Benioff and Weiss could have earned money on every Game of Thrones spinoff show, as they were contractually entitled to producer credits on all of them. Benioff and Weiss didn’t want their name on any show they were not actively involved in.
Game of Thrones is now available for streaming on Max. Benioff and Weiss’s 3 Body Problem will be released on Netflix on March 21.
