Game of Thrones Showrunners Explain Lady Stoneheart’s Absence in the Show

Game of Thrones Showrunners Explain Lady Stoneheart’s Absence in the Show

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With Game of Thrones ending last year and a prequel series planned for 2022, HBO is now gearing up for the release of a BTS book called Fire Cannot Kill a Dragon. The book is said to contain several anecdotes and stories from the making of the show, and one of them concerns the absence of one essential book character—Lady Stoneheart.

In the books, Lady Stoneheart was the resurrected Catelyn Stark who had come back to life in search of revenge on those who murdered her family. George R.R. Martin was said to have wanted to keep the character for the show, but David Benioff and D.B. Weiss ultimately ruled against it.

According to Entertainment Weekly, Stoneheart’s role was removed because of 3 reasons:

  1. Benioff and Weiss didn’t want to spoil Martin’s original plans for the character who is said to have a much larger role in Winds of Winter and A Dream of Spring. While they do know what happens to the character, they’re just going to wait for the book to release so we can find out for ourselves what was up.
  2. They didn’t want to cheapen Jon Snow’s resurrection by having someone else resurrected. Having more than two people come to life kind of lessens the impact of death in the story.
  3. They thought that Catelyn Stark’s death at the Red Wedding was already a perfect end for the character. Benioff explains, “Catelyn’s last moment was so fantastic, and Michelle [Fairley] is such a great actress, to bring her back as a zombie who doesn’t speak felt like diminishing returns.”

We don’t really know what Martin’s original plan for Stoneheart was, but some speculate it will have something to do with Brienne who runs into Stoneheart in the books. While it’s a shame we never got the character, at least fans have something to look forward to when they pick up the book—whenever that comes out.

No release has been announced for The Winds of Winter.

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