Why ‘Game of Thrones’ Is Still Trapped By Season 8’s Terrible Ending

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While Game of Thrones and Star Wars are distinct franchises, they’ve faced surprisingly similar challenges lately. Both struggled significantly after disappointing finales – Star Wars with its divisive sequel trilogy and Game of Thrones with its widely criticized final season. Star Wars is gradually finding a path to recovery and rebuilding its reputation. However, Game of Thrones, despite continued expansion, seems to have reached a point of no return and is facing more difficult obstacles.

The final season of Game of Thrones remains a notorious disappointment for many TV viewers. After seven seasons widely considered to be brilliant, the show ran out of source material from George R.R. Martin, and he hadn’t been actively involved for years. Season 8 was almost universally criticized, bringing a once-great and highly successful series to an underwhelming end. Interestingly, around the same time, Star Wars saw a resurgence in popularity, but its finale proved to be just as problematic. Now, in 2026, Star Wars is showing signs of a successful recovery – something Game of Thrones hasn’t yet managed.

How ‘Star Wars’ Is Finally Bouncing Back After Its Failed Sequel Trilogy


Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures

The 2015 film The Force Awakens was a critical and commercial success, earning over $2 billion and reigniting excitement for Star Wars after a long hiatus. While the subsequent two films in the Skywalker Saga also made a lot of money, they received significant criticism from audiences. Now, with The Mandalorian & Grogu returning the franchise to theaters for the first time since 2019’s The Rise of Skywalker, Star Wars is working to regain its former popularity.

Recent Disney+ shows like The Mandalorian have been key to keeping Star Wars popular. Because the sequel trilogy damaged the franchise’s long-held reputation, these shows largely avoided mentioning those films. Instead, they focused on expanding stories from earlier in the Star Wars timeline. While the sequels are still officially part of the story, new shows carefully avoid getting close to the events of The Force Awakens and beyond – it’s almost as if there’s an agreement not to talk about them.

The main problem was that the timeline quickly became overcrowded. For example, the Obi-Wan Kenobi series in 2022 expanded on an important time between the original Star Wars movies and the prequels, and The Acolyte attempted – unsuccessfully – to establish the High Republic era as the new setting for live-action Star Wars. Unfortunately, anything that did work during this period felt like a temporary distraction. The looming question was how the divisive events of the sequel trilogy would be addressed – they couldn’t be ignored forever, but would they even be addressed?

The answer is complicated, but generally yes. Disney is starting to move the Star Wars story forward beyond the events of The Rise of Skywalker, while still recognizing what happened in that film. While The Mandalorian & Grogu will continue to be set before the sequel trilogy, future Star Wars movies will take place after it. For example, Star Wars: Starfighter, coming in 2027, will be set about five years after The Rise of Skywalker and will follow a new group of characters dealing with the aftermath of the Resistance’s victory. Then, Daisy Ridley will return as Rey in New Jedi Order, a sequel expected to be set around 15 years after the original trilogy that introduced her. After a string of unsuccessful attempts, Disney is no longer avoiding this potentially exciting period in Star Wars history, and seems ready to invest in it properly.

Why ‘Game of Thrones’ Can’t Do What ‘Star Wars’ Is Doing


HBO

As a critic, I’ve always felt one of Star Wars‘ biggest strengths is that it started from scratch. Sure, recent films have to acknowledge what came before, but it’s always had this freedom to be truly original. That’s why the decision to essentially move past the divisive sequel trilogy feels so right – it’s a clean slate. Compare that to Game of Thrones, which was always tethered to George R.R. Martin’s novels. The show did stray from the books eventually, but the truly awful final season proved just how crucial it is to stay faithful to the source material. It’s a lesson learned, and a clear demonstration of why some stories just work better when they respect their origins.

Look, as much as I loved Game of Thrones, I’m not sure a sequel series is a great idea. Season 8 felt like it was already wandering off without a map because it had passed the books, and that didn’t end well. George R.R. Martin still hasn’t finished writing the A Song of Ice and Fire series, which is a real shame. Luckily, he’s written a ton of other stories in that world, and HBO’s been smart to use them. We’ve gotten House of the Dragon and A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, both of which are fantastic, but they’re prequels – they take place way before the events we saw in Game of Thrones. It’s great content, just not a continuation of the original story.

Exploring the history of Westeros is fascinating, but after the disappointing final season of Game of Thrones, the new prequel shows feel like a forced effort to keep the series going. Since the original show relied so heavily on its characters and ended so unsatisfactorily, many fans likely aren’t eager to see more stories added to the timeline. This is a challenge Star Wars has faced for years. Therefore, HBO’s best path for Game of Thrones is to look to the past, adapting stories George R.R. Martin has already written.

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There’s a strong chance Game of Thrones could be completely restarted and remade, especially if George R.R. Martin ever finishes the book series. For now, HBO seems content with acknowledging the more controversial parts of the show’s story without directly addressing them – almost as if they’re avoiding them. Prequels help with this, but like with Star Wars, audiences will eventually lose interest if the prequels can’t significantly impact the main storyline they’re waiting for.

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2026-02-19 04:18