In response to the fan backlash against the depictions of rape in Game of Thrones, the showrunners will change the way they approach sexual violence in the popular HBO show's upcoming season.

Director Jeremy Podeswa, who has directed two episodes of the series and will helm the first two of Season 6, says creators David Benioff and DB Weiss have been influenced by the largely negative viewer response to past scenes that showed sexual violence and rape.

At a recent event at Fox Studios Australia, Podeswa said Benioff and Weiss “were responsive to the discussion and there were a couple of things that changed as a result."

“It is important that (the producers) not self-censor," he continued. "The show depicts a brutal world where horrible things happen. They did not want to be too overly influenced by that (criticism) but they did absorb and take it in, and it did influence them in a way.”

Much of the negative response kicked up during Season 5, after Sansa Stark was brutally raped by Ramsay Bolton as Theon Greyjoy was forced to watch, a controversial choice by the show that wasn't included in the original books by George R.R. Martin. Fans also criticized the show's decision to focus on Theon's face during the encounter, which seemed to highlight Theon's pain rather than Sansa's.

Game of Thornes Season 6 will begin on HBO in April 2016.