‘Game of Thrones’ season 5 spoilers: Show exec on Bran omission

Many “Game of Thrones” fans first learned this summer the news that Bran Stark was going to be missing in action throughout the fifth season of the show, and the reaction was mixed. While Bran has never been the best character on the show (he’s been one of the book adaptations that the writers have had the most trouble with since the beginning), it will be strange to not see someone who was so important to season 1 suddenly gone completely.

Obviously, the thing here to remember is that he is going to be back; the question is just when, and what he will be up to. He’s left with the Children right now, and speaking to Entertainment Weekly, executive producer David Benioff explained that timing, and the work of author George R.R. Martin, are two of the big reasons why:

“The fact is, even though we’re making changes to the books and adapting as necessary, we’re trying to keep the various storylines the same [as the books] and trying to keep them roughly [chronologically] parallel. And [in season 4] we caught up to the end of Bran’s storyline [in George R.R. Martin’s most recent book, A Dance with Dragons] last year. So if we pushed him forward this season, then he’s way ahead of where the other characters are.”

We’re ultimately fine with losing Bran for a little while, mostly because there are approximately a billion or so other stories to get to on the show, and we would rather cast the focus on some of those than spend time with a storyline that really wouldn’t be going anywhere in the near future.

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