George R.R. Martin, author of the A Song of Ice and Fire saga, has expressed his anxieties about the second season of HBO’s Game of Thrones in a new interview. Will it survive without Sean Bean?

Surprisingly, George R.R. Martin worries about whether the ratings will go down now that Sean Bean (Ned Stark) is off the show, even though he has expressed no regret about killing him off in the novel.

Martin tells the Hero Complex that he worries that Sean Bean’s departure will affect Game of Thrones‘ ratings like Linda Hamilton’s exit did from Beauty and the Beast:

We’ve only had one episode after Sean’s character died and, well, we’ll find out how it affects thing. It was a big shock to a lot of people and it was interesting to see the response to it. It’s something I did, you know, 16 years ago when the book came out. So it wasn’t a secret, of course,  but I could see the shock of it in the emails I got and on the blogs and the headlines. Time will tell how it affects the show, but hopefully the rest of the characters and their stories have become compelling to people… but I have to admit I worry about it a little after the experience with Beauty and the Beast and Linda Hamilton.

In the same article, Peter Dinklage (Tyrion Lannister) also weighs in, though he is more optimistic:

You never know what’s going to happen. I mean, we killed the protagonist, and I think that’s a really smart narrative. Writing has gotten so formulaic in television. You got to push the envelope and challenge people’s expectations, and I think we do that. You never know what’s around the corner. In season 2, we’re not done killing off people, and it’s amazing the characters we choose.

Read more here at the Hero Complex.