George R.R. Martin wouldn't let Game of Thrones cut Rickon Stark because "I had important plans for him"

Insider

EW released an excerpt of James Hibberd's upcoming book Fire Cannot Kill a Dragon that goes behind the scenes of Thrones' disatrous original pilot. The book features an oral history in which Martin revealed why that D.B. Weiss and David Benioff had wanted to write off Rickon. "The biggest thing was Dan and David called me up and had the idea of eliminating Rickon, the youngest of the Stark children, because he didn't do much in the first book," Martin said. "I said I had important plans for him, so they kept him."