‘Game of Thrones’ Showrunners Want Their Ending to Be Like ‘Breaking Bad’

Game of Thrones’ Final Season is set to rule the pop-culture landscape this spring, and there are literal big bets on the line about who will win, and who will die. The ending of Game of Thrones is such a big mystery that fans would be willing to give a limb just to get a hint of the outcome, and no one is feeling the pressure to deliver more than showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss.

In a new interview with EW, Benioff and Weiss discuss their hopes for Game of Thrones‘ ending, comparing the challenge of ending the show to some of the more popular (and controversial) series endings that TV has produced in the 21st century:

“BENIOFF: From the beginning, we’ve talked about how the show would end. A good story isn’t a good story if you have a bad ending. Of course we worry. It’s also part of the fun of any show that people love arguing about it. I loved the way David Chase ended The Sopranos [with its surprising cut to black]. I was one of those people who thought my TV had gone out. I got up and was checking the wires, unable to believe my cable had gone out in the most important moment of my favorite TV series. I think that was the best of all possible endings for that show. But a lot of people hated it. I’ve gotten into a lot of arguments with people about why that was a great ending, but people felt legitimately cheated and that’s their right to feel that way…Either way, it works for me.. Once it cuts to black nobody knows, and that’s what great about it. The only sad part is nobody can ever do that ending again.

WEISS: Except us.

BENIOFF: Except for our black screen.

WEISS: …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.”

Self-deprecation aside, there are a lot of Game of Thrones fans who probably do not want something as artistically challenging as that Sopranos cut to black sequenece – or something is open-ended and ambiguous as that Breaking Bad ending, for that matter.

If you don’t remember: the finale of Breaking Bad saw Bryan Cranston’s Walter White come out of hiding to launch one last violent mission to free his ex-partner Jesse Pinkman (Aaron Paul) from being enslaved as a top-grade meth cook by a gang of sadistic white supremacists. The episode ended with Walter seriously wounded and lying in a pristine chemical lab, seemingly about to die just as police rushed in. Jesse was last seen emotionally raging as he sped away from the gang’s compound in car, seemingly leaving his illicit life behind. Ironically, that somewhat vague ending to Breaking Bad has created space for an upcoming Breaking Bad movie that will be a sequel to finale.

Game of Thrones definitely seems like the type of story that needs a more definitive end, with those who live, those who die, and the fate of Westeros pushed into some sort of new era – be it one of peace under Stark rule, or one of revitalization in which humanity dies and creatures like the White Walkers or Children of the Forest reclaim the land.

What’s your bet for how Game of Thrones will end? Let us know in the comments!

Game of Thrones Final Season debuts this Sunday, April 14th.

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