Since the criticism of GoT season 8 has led to the development of a spinoff series starring Jon Snow, demonstrating that it was ultimately irrelevant. For the vast majority of its run, GoT was not only the most popular TV show in the world but also the most widely watched.

When exactly the show’s quality started to decline is up for debate. However, most fans agree that it was sometime during season 8. The conclusion of GoT received much criticism for how it handled character arcs and the rapidity with which events unfolded.

Online vitriol, directed primarily at showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, and petitions to have the show remade were just two examples of the widespread discussion of the Game of Thrones season 8 backlash that occurred during and after the show’s final run.

Even so, HBO has continued to delve further into George R. R. Martin’s expansive world of Westeros, ordering the Targaryen-centric prequel House of the Dragon into series, filming a pilot for a show about the Long Night (which was later scrapped), and discussing ideas that go even further back in time.

The Backlashes Have Had No Effect Whatsoever

Reports of a Jon Snow sequel being developed is a major shift from what was previously believed: that the main Game of Thrones series would remain untouched no matter how many spinoffs were created. It’s evidence that, despite the backlash, HBO still thinks there’s an audience for the show. This is why the network wants to capitalize on the success of GoT.

After all, HBO has been more restrained than might have been expected, given the size of the Game of Thrones IP and the wealth of material that could be mined from it with the right spinoffs. Since HBO is doubling down on Game of Thrones with the Jon Snow sequel, it’s clear that the backlash had little to no real effect.

House of the Dragon’s primary goal is likely to win back viewers disappointed by Game of Thrones season 8, but it could be argued that HBO has already done so or doesn’t need to. Even though there was a sizable amount of pushback, Game of Thrones still has a sizable audience because millions of people worldwide watched the show.

This squares with the fact that Game of Thrones continues to rank among the most pirated TV shows worldwide and is a top draw on HBO Max. The online consensus may be that season 8 of Game of Thrones is universally despised, but viewership numbers don’t seem to reflect this.

The Battles of Likes and Dislikes

Since even more time will have passed since Game of Thrones’ ending, fans’ emotional scars should have healed, and they may be more willing to give the Jon Snow sequel show a chance out of curiosity or because they enjoyed House of the Dragon (though the latter remains to be seen).

Whether or not the Jon Snow spinoff will be the only direct sequel to Game of Thrones is unknown, but the fact that HBO is going so directly back to the source, rather than its previous approach to prequels, shows that it is not worried about the backlash at all, and that, for all, there will be some who don’t want it, there will be many more who do.