‘Game of Thrones’ season 5 spoilers: Exec on decision to omit Bran Stark

After months of rumors, it looks like it is finally confirmed: You are not going to see either Hodor or Bran Stark on “Game of Thrones” season 5. There has been talk about this for a long time, but never many comments about it from the folks behind the scenes on the HBO hit … at least until now.

So why was this fairly-controversial decision ultimately made? Well, it makes sense if you understand what is going on right now in the George R.R. Martin books. Speaking in a new interview with Entertainment Weekly, co-showrunner David Benioff explained that it is strictly an issue of not pushing the story of Bran that much further ahead of where anyone else is in the story:

“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 last year we caught up to the end of Bran’s storyline [in the most recent book, A Dance with Dragons]. So if we pushed him forward this season, then he’s way ahead of where the other characters are.”

If we are being honest here, the one thing that we’ll say is that we won’t miss Bran that much. His story on the show never lived up to the books, and that is a pretty sad development, indeed. The one concern we have is that Isaac Hempstead-Wright has grown up very quick the past few years, and you have to wonder if he is seriously getting too old for the role.

What do you think about this news, and will you miss Bran? Share with a comment now, and to get some other “Game of Thrones” updates right now, you can do so over at the link here today! Also, you can sign up to get some other big TV scoop right now on all we cover courtesy of our official CarterMatt Newsletter. (Photo via HBO.)