‘Game of Thrones’ Producers Talk Tyrion and Daenerys’ Big Crossover

This past Sunday’s latest Game of Thrones installment “The Gift” blew past one of the most long-anticipated pairings of even George R.R. Martin’s books, but how will it change the series? Showrunners David Benioff and Dan Weiss discuss the potential for Daenerys and Tyrion’s pairing, and what it means for fans of Martin’s literary saga.

Where many had thought Tyrion and Daenerys’ inevitable meeting would arrive later in the season, making us wait until 2016 for many significant interactions between the pair, Benioff and Weiss spoke to Entertainment Weekly of the decision to speed up the arc:

We’re really excited to see these two characters we love so much finally set eyes on each other. Creatively it made sense to us, because we wanted it to happen. They’re two of the best characters of the show. To have them come so close together this season then have them not meet felt incredibly frustrating.

Also, we’re on a relatively fast pace. We don’t want to do a 10-year adaptation of the books, we don’t want to do a nine-year adaptation. We’re not going to spend four seasons in Meereen. It’s time for these two to get together. It’s hard to come up with a more eloquent explanation, but this just felt right. [Varys] puts Tyrion’s mission out there [in the season premiere] and the mission ends in Meereen.

You’re warned of potential book spoilers from here on out, but despite landing in close proximity by the end of Martin’s latest novel A Dance With Dragons, Daenerys and Tyrion have yet to formally cross paths, and may not in the immediate Winds of Winter future either. Both Benioff and Weiss have previously spoken to HBO’s Game of Thrones inevitably spoiling certain book points, though Martin has also cautioned that they may arrive at similar destinations through different paths.

We’ll see how smoothly Dany and Tyrion’s first formal meeting unfolds through the final three episodes of the season, but was HBO right to push forward a thread George R.R. Martin has held off for so long? How might the rest of Game of Thrones Season 5 unfold without necessarily spoiling Martin’s work?