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The 'Game of Thrones' creators would only change one thing about the blockbuster series, and it's probably not what you'd think

left: peter dinklage as tyrion lanister looking up incredulously from the ground; right: mord the jailer, a bald man with a scar over his left eye, with a shocked expression
Mord the jailer menaces Tyrion Lanister in season one of "Game of Thrones." HBO

  • "Game of Thrones" creators David Benioff and D.B. Weiss don't typically reflect on the show publicly.
  • But they told The Hollywood Reporter that they had one regret from the show. 
  • It was missing the chance to bring back season one character Mord the Jailer. Yes, really.
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David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, the creators of HBO's "Game of Thrones," say that they only have one regret big enough to amend when it comes to their beloved — and controversial — adaptation of George R.R. Martin's book series.

And it's… underutilizing Mord the Jailer.

"One thing I know I wish we could have done is there's the character Mord the Jailer," Benioff told The Hollywood Reporter writer-at-large James Hibberd.

"It was a mistake not bringing Mord the Jailer back into it," Weiss said. "We always talked about doing it."

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Here's a refresher: Mord is a character who appears in season one of "Game of Thrones." After Tyrion Lannister is arrested at Catelyn Stark's behest, on account of the assassination attempt against her son Bran and the killing of Lord John Arryn, he's tossed into the dungeon at the Eyrie. There, Mord is his bludgeon-happy jailer — but after Tyrion convinces Mord to get him an audience with Lady Arryn, he pays Mord back with a bag of gold. (You may remember the phrase, "A Lannister always pays his debts.")

mord the jailer, a large man with a bald head and face scar, looming over tyrion lanister as he cowers on the edge of a cell
Mord in action. HBO

The creators told THR that they missed the chance to engineer Mord's triumphant return during a tavern scene later in the series.

"We realized too late that Mord could have owned the tavern," Weiss said. "We could have had that actor in the background acting exact the way he did as a jailer, except now as a small business owner. It was just such an obvious, no-brainer, day-after idea."

Benioff and Weiss, Hibberd wrote in a cover story about the pair's new show "3 Body Problem," generally avoid publicly criticizing "Game of Thrones" because they feel that it wouldn't benefit anyone who worked on the series, including them.

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There's been plenty of discourse around "Game of Thrones" regardless, even without its creators' voices. After becoming one of HBO's biggest hits, the series' eighth and final season ended with a divisive bang.

"You always hope everyone's going to love anything you do and it would've been great if 100 percent of people loved it, but they didn't," Benioff told THR. "You can get so bogged down in public opinion that you spend your whole life googling things and trying to find people who felt one way or the other way."

Game of Thrones HBO TV
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