The ‘Game Of Thrones’ Showrunners Want The Series Finale To Be Compared To ‘Breaking Bad’

Rightly or wrongly, the legacy of shows, particularly dramas, are often defined by series finales. Take Lost, for instance, a once-in-a-generation sensation that’s still compulsively watchable and highly entertaining… and yet, so much of the current conversation about it concerns the divisive finale. Same with The Sopranos and Battlestar Galactica (Dexter was bad seasons before the bad finale). The Game of Thrones co-showrunners, David Benioff and D.B Weiss, were recently asked how important it is for them the show to stick the landing.

“We want people to love it. It matters a lot to us. We’ve spent 11 years doing this. We also know no matter what we do, even if it’s the optimal version, that a certain number of people will hate the best of all possible versions. There is no version where everybody says, ‘I have to admit, I agree with every other person on the planet that this is the perfect way to do this’ — that’s an impossible reality that doesn’t exist,” Weiss told Entertainment Weekly. Benioff and Weiss are fans of The Sopranos‘ fade-to-black ending (“The only sad part is nobody can ever do that ending again”), and they spoke to Alan Taylor, who directed episodes for both HBO series, about his discussions with creator David Chase:

Weiss: “I remember talking with [director] Alan Taylor, who worked on our show and The Sopranos, whether ‘Don’t Stop Believin’ was a song David Chase liked or whether it’s a song David Chase loathed but thought Tony Soprano would like. And there’s not even an answer to that. I’m hoping we get the Breaking Bad [finale] argument where it’s like, ‘Is that an A or an A+’ I want that to be the argument. I just wish we found better directors for it.”

Breaking Bad ends with the death of a major character, so the comparison is apt. Hm, maybe that’s why the Night King’s eyes are blue. He’s been dipping into Heisenberg’s supply. Confirmed: Game of Thrones and Breaking Bad (and The Walking Dead) exist in the same universe.