Every Movie & TV Show Based On A George R. R. Martin Books, Ranked Worst To Best

2025’s In the Lost Lands is the most recent adaptation of George R.R. Martin’s writing, adding it to the divisive list of visual media to come from his beloved fiction. Martin is one of the most prolific writers of the past fifty years, with his best-known work being the A Song of Ice & Fire books, which served as the source material for HBO’s Game of Thrones. These books weren’t just massive for television; they also changed fantasy literature for years, subverting what Tolkien did with The Lord of the Rings and pushing the genre toward what we have today.

George R.R. Martin’s best books aren’t just the A Song of Ice & Fire titles, though. He’s been a published writer since the 1970s, and he initially built his career on works of science fiction short prose. There are still readers who consider his sci-fi novellas and short stories to be his strongest work, though his fantasy world is almost certainly his opus in scale. Before A Game of Thrones was published in 1996, Martin wrote another three full-length novels and dozens of short works of imaginative fiction, all of which are worth exploring.

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5

Nightflyers (1987)

Based on Nightflyers (1980)

Nightflyers is one of George R.R. Martin’s most celebrated works of short fiction, but it’s unfortunately been used as the source material for his least successful adaptation. In the aftermath of masterwork films like Alien and The Thing, adapting Martin’s sci-fi/horror novella might have been a no-brainer. However, the 1987 movie wasn’t a faithful depiction of his story or a well-made production. It currently holds a 15% score on Rotten Tomatoes, making it the lowest-rated adaptation of his work.

Nightflyers is set in George R.R. Martin’s “Thousand Worlds” universe, which also includes Dying of the Light, Sandkings, and A Song for Lya.

It’s worth noting that George R.R. Martin originally wrote Nightflyers in 1980, but the more expansive version was written in 1981, providing additional exposition related to several characters. For whatever reason, the film adaptation chose to use the shortened narrative and still had to cut out plot elements for its budget. It performed poorly at the box office, and unlike many 1980s sci-fi films that weren’t financial hits at the time, Nightflyers never found an audience as a cult classic, even after Martin’s writing blew up.

4

In The Lost Lands (2025)

Based on In the Lost Lands (1982)

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In the Lost Lands

R

Action

Adventure

Fantasy

2/10

7/10

Release Date

March 7, 2025

Runtime

101 Minutes

Cast

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• 

  Milla Jovovich

  Gray Alys

• 

  Dave Bautista

  Boyce

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With a veteran filmmaker like Paul W. S. Anderson (Resident Evil series) and big-name actors like Dave Bautista and Milla Jovovich, In the Lost Lands seemed like an opportunity to make something out of George R.R. Martin’s 1982 short story. While the author praised this adaptation, Screen Rant was among many reviewers to find it lacking in the prestige quality that defined Game of Thrones, with a more direct focus on action and a particular tone. Reviewers on Rotten Tomatoes have highlighted the lack of a cohesive narrative as a major issue.

This 2025 George R.R. Martin adaptation holds a 17% score on Rotten Tomatoes, only slightly better than 1987’s Nightflyers. The Audience Score is slightly better at 46%, which is fairly consistent with Anderson’s Resident Evil adaptations, which were never received well by critics despite having a fanbase. It’s possible that In the Lost Lands could find its footing on streaming, but the film has performed poorly at the box office, making it doubtful that this title will be the Game of Thrones replacement.

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In the Lost Lands, the new post-apocalyptic action movie starring Milla Jovovich and Dave Bautista, has a very low score on Rotten Tomatoes.

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Nightflyers (2018)

Based on Nightflyers (1980)

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2018 was the perfect time for a television series to be advertised as an adaptation of a George R.R. Martin story, but Syfy’s version of Nightflyers wasn’t the hit they were looking for. The 2018 TV series only ran for one season, which holds a 38% score on Rotten Tomatoes and a slightly better 55% Audience Score. It’s worth noting that this series, while not Martin’s work at its best, was a much stronger iteration than the original film, with a talented cast bringing it to life.

Unfortunately, Nightflyers still suffers from a low budget, and the writing doesn’t do justice to the original novella. Trying to make a movie out of a work of short fiction is a challenge, but making a ten-episode TV series is even more difficult, requiring the show’s writers to take drastic creative liberties with Martin’s work. Nightflyers is mediocre TV that was released during the Golden Age of its medium; it’s no wonder why it was left behind.

2

House Of The Dragon (2022-)

Based on Fire & Blood (2018)

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House of the Dragon

TV-MA

Drama

Action

Adventure

Fantasy

8/10

107

8/10

Release Date

August 21, 2022

Network

HBO Max

Cast

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• 

  Matt Smith

  Prince Daemon Targaryen

• 

  Emma D’Arcy

  Alicent Hightower

Showrunner

George R.R. Martin

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After Game of Thrones season 8 and the controversy surrounding the original show’s ending, the pressure couldn’t have been higher on House of the Dragon. Unfortunately, like the original show, the responses are still rather mixed. The streaming world saw a boom of fantasy adaptations following Game of Thrones, with Prime Video, Netflix, and HBO itself trying their hands with new adaptations to emulate its success. While House of the Dragon is arguably the best of these shows, it’s still not living up to the Game of Thrones standard.

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Let’s start with what House of the Dragon has done right. The series’ first season, in particular, has relaunched the energy surrounding Martin’s fantasy universe on television, kickstarting another spinoff for 2025, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms. Actors like Matt Smith, Olivia Cooke, Emma D’Arcy, Paddy Considine, and more have proven just as capable as any on Game of Thrones, bringing fantastic characters from the history of the Targaryen dynasty to life. Not to mention, the opportunities for dragon action are everything that one could have hoped for while reading the books.

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House of the Dragon achieved strong reviews with its first season, but the series never really seemed to have the capacity to outshine Game of Thrones. Even if season 2 had been reviewed better, the show was always too similar to the original HBO show to stand out as much. The Dance of the Dragons offers compelling drama, but it’s anti-climactic in a way, given that readers already know the ending. Part of what made Game of Thrones such a phenomenon was the feeling that anything could happen, creating television stakes like nothing before.

1

Game Of Thrones

Based on A Song of Ice & Fire (1996-)

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Game Of Thrones

TV-MA

Drama

Action

Adventure

Fantasy

10/10

350

9/10

Release Date

2011 – 2018

Showrunner

David Benioff, D.B. Weiss

Cast

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• 

  Kit Harington

  Jon Snow

• 

  Isaac Hempstead Wright

  Brandon Bran Stark

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Instead of diving into Game of Thrones’ ending and all the controversy, it’s worth noting what this show did for television, drastically changing the landscape in an unprecedented way. Aside from The Lord of the Rings, this is arguably the best fantasy adaptation of all time and undoubtedly one of the best TV shows ever made. HBO brought production value and cinematic elements to this series that still haven’t been seen on TV since, with a sprawling cast, an enormous CGI budget, and more, somehow managing to deliver a new season annually for its first seven years.

At the show’s best, Game of Thrones stuck closely to George R.R. Martin’s material and offered something masterful and entirely unique.

As mentioned, Game of Thrones changed what was possible with television. The death of Eddard Stark in season 1 was such a drastic plot twist, unlike anything that had been on TV prior. The prospect was so bizarre that book readers had anticipated the show would take a different direction, keeping him alive and making an enormous change to the narrative. At the show’s best, Game of Thrones stuck closely to George R.R. Martin’s material and offered something masterful and entirely unique.

Even if Game of Thrones season 8 took a turn for the worst, damaging the cultural perception of the series, that doesn’t take away from what the show achieved at its best. Game of Thrones was an Emmy juggernaut, one of the highest-viewed shows ever made, and introduced millions of viewers to the fantasy genre. Unlike In the Lost Lands, Game of Thrones demonstrated what George R.R. Martin’s writing could be like at its absolute pinnacle, combining it with the best talent available for an outstanding production.

Source: https://dinhtienhoang.edu.vn
Category: Entertainment