After the divisive final season of HBO's Game of Thrones was released, fans were so outraged that many took to the Internet and launched an online petition through Change.org for new writers to be hired to rewrite Season 8. This is not a new approach; fans of Star Wars who were angry at Disney's sequel trilogy petitioned to convince Disney/Lucasfilm to remake it -- and there may be a new trilogy, though it has nothing to do with that petition.
However, unlike most other fan efforts, the original Game of Thrones petition has proved to be as resilient as Jon Snow. Almost three years after it was launched in the wake of the May 12, 2019 season finale, it's still gaining support and shows no visible signs of slowing down. People continue to sign on and the petition has moved past 1.85 million signatures.
Season 8 caught much negative press for its bad writing and predictable storytelling, namely with Daenerys Targaryen's turn to the dark side and burning down King's Landing through her dragon. Some viewers believe showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss are incompetent writers who were responsible for the polarization of the final season because they didn't have any material from Game of Thrones author George R.R. Martin to go off of. The petition's author, known only as "Dylan D.," claimed that the showrunners let the fans down and that the final season deserved to be remade.
Audiences are still hoping for an outcome similar to how DC fans successfully petitioned Warner Bros. to release Zack Snyder's cut of Justice League back in 2017 (some of those fans are now trying to get Snyder an Oscar nomination). But they're not likely to see that same success. Despite its strong polarization within the Game of Thrones fandom and having the lowest Rotten Tomatoes score of the entire series, Season 8 scored incredibly high ratings, making it unlikely that HBO would capitulate to the fans -- especially years later when the prequel show has finished filming.
The other concern is that it's just not logistically feasible, especially after this length of time. It costs an incredible amount of money to make a full season of a TV show -- let alone one as elaborate and effects-heavy as Game of Thrones. CNBC estimated that one Season 8 episode cost as much as $15 million each. That wouldn't include the expense of hiring the actors to reprise their roles. There's no benefit to HBO to commit millions of dollars to redoing something that, from a business point of view, was already a success.
While online petitions are a way to gain attention for a cause, they usually don't succeed because of all those other factors in play. It takes a huge audience and a lot of uproar to move TV networks or studios. The Game of Thrones petition is one of the most impressive but 1.62 million signatures pales compared to $15 million in cost. Fans will almost certainly have to live with the discontent that disappointed one of the show's stars.