Executive Producer/Showrunner Andrew Miller recently chatted with TVLine.com‘s Vlada Gelman where he addressed that issue.
I couldn’t have said it better myself.
TVLINE | You have very passionate fans, because of the books. What would you say to the ones who are upset that you’ve strayed from the source material?
Andrew Miller: I’m a huge fan of the books too, so I certainly know where they’re coming from. For us, the books are an amazing base for character and world and ideas, but they only go so far, because it’s just a three book series. What we’re shooting for is, hopefully, something that will run for many, many years. Because of that, we need to make changes. You can’t follow the books that closely because the books are going in a very specific direction, and we can’t do that. So there’s going to be changes. It’s not like Game of Thrones where there’s so much material to tap into for season after season. In this case, by nature of the fact that there are only three books in the series, we’re going to have to make some changes no matter what. All those changes are going to be difficult. Even the idea of limiting the circle to begin with was heartbreaking to me because there’s so many other characters that I just love from the book series. But again, it’s just the necessity of the television world and the nature of doing 22 episodes each year. So I sympathize. I understand. I feel much the same way. But I’m hoping many of the changes we make, people will love and, hopefully, there’ll be more of those changes than the changes people are sad about.
Read the entire interview here.