Game of Thrones Showrunners No Longer Appearing at San Diego Comic-Con

Some of Game of Thrones‘ cast and crew will be missing in action from this weekend’s San Diego Comic-Con panel — including showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss. On Wednesday, HBO updated its lineup (via Entertainment Weekly) for the Thrones retrospective panel, and revealed several previously-announced names that will not be attending. Benioff and Weiss are on the list, alongside director Miguel Sapochnik and actors Iain Glen (Jorah Mormont) and Nathalie Emmanual (Missandei).

Thrones fans can still expect an array of cast members at the Hall H panel, with Jacob Anderson (Grey Worm), John Bradley (Samwell Tarly), Nikolaj Coster-Waldau (Jaime Lannister), Liam Cunningham (Davos Seaworth), Conleth Hill (Varys), Maisie Williams (Arya Stark), and Isaac Hempstead Wright (Bran Stark) all set to appear at the event.

There’s absolutely no indication as to why Benioff and Weiss are no longer attending the event, which was poised to be the pair’s first public appearance since the controversial finale aired in May. In the time since, the duo has received quite a bit of backlash from the show’s fans.

“For anyone to imagine or to think that the two creators of the show are not the most passionate, the greatest, the most invested of all, and to for a second think that they didn’t spend the last 10 years thinking about how they were going to end it is kind of silly,” Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, who played Jaime Lannister on the series, argued during a recent convention appearance. “And also know that they too read the comments. And it is, even though you sit on your own and go, ‘Fucking stupid writers. Assholes.’ They really ― like everyone on Game of Thrones, every single person and there are thousands ― we worked our asses off to make the best show we could for the ending.”

This comes just one day after Thrones‘ final season earned a landmark 32 nominations at the Primetime Emmy Awards. One of those nods was for Benioff and Weiss, who are being recognized for “Outstanding Writing” for the series finale.

What do you think of the Game of Thrones creators skipping San Diego Comic-Con? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below!