Fans are eagerly awaiting the arrival of the eighth and final season of HBO's hit Game of Thrones, but if author George R. R. Martin had his way, the drama would have continued for several more years.

Speaking with Variety on the Emmy Awards red carpet, Martin revealed the decision to end the fantasy series after eight seasons came down to showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss.

RELATED: Game of Thrones: HBO Releases First Footage From Season 8

"We could've gone 11, 12, 13 seasons," he said. "David and Dan have been saying for like five seasons that seven seasons is all they would go. We got them to go to eight but not any more than that. There was a period like five years ago when they were saying seven seasons and I was saying 10 seasons and they won, they're the ones actually working on it."

Despite losing that battle, Martin understands the show's stars are ready to move on  to other projects. "I know all of the actors, as great as they are, all the actors are anxious to get on and play other roles," he said. "They don't want to spend their entire lives playing one role and that's fine, that's great, we had such an amazing cast."

RELATED: Game of Thrones’ Final Season Likely to Debut Late-2019

If Martin had won out, the series could have examined storylines from his novels that were redueced or completely cut, like Lady Stoneheart, Young Griff and the expanded Dorne plot, while potentially allowing for the sixth novel, The Winds of Winter, to be published before the show caught up.

The eighth and final season of Game of Thrones is expected to debut in the latter half of 2019, with six episodes, each running more than an hour.