Game of Thrones director admits final episodes were ‘rushed’ and ‘agrees with the criticism’ from fans

ONE of Game of Thrones’ directors has sided with fans following the poor reception of the final series.

Neil Marshall, who worked on iconic episodes Blackwater and The Watchers on the Wall, admitted that the last few episodes weren’t to his taste.

He praised show runners David Benioff and D B Weiss for their work on the show overall, but said that given his own experience choreographing battle sequences, he would’ve seized some missed opportunities.

“It’s very difficult to second guess those guys because they are geniuses and they have done such an amazing job,” he said.

“Inevitably, I would’ve taken a different approach to directing - one of the greatest experiences I had with working on both those episodes was that they were so open to bringing my ideas, particularly about battle scenes and how battles worked,” he went on.

“I would’ve definitely added my strategy and knowledge to that,” he added to Metro Online.

In terms of pacing, Marshall conceded that plenty was skimmed over as directors did their best to tie up loose ends.

“I kind of agree with a lot of the criticism that it was really rushed,” he continued.

“Everyone ended up where they were meant to end up but they got there in a little bit of a rush in the end.”

Even George RR Martin admitted last week that he found the cuts made to his original vision for the show to be “traumatic”.

He conceded that the conclusions of the Westeros epic “wasn’t completely faithful” to what he envisioned and cited “creative differences” with TV execs.

Marshall previously told Sun Online that working on Blackwater was the “most insane week of [his] life” after he was called in with just a week’s notice following the original director stepping back last minute.

He said the Battle of Blackwater was his favourite episode to work on as he orchestrated a naval assault on King’s Landing, complete with explosions of the noxious gas Wildfire.