The original success of Game of Thrones and now the follow-up success of House of the Dragon has caused HBO and George RR Martin to start developing essentially every possible concept for spin-offs, almost all of them prequels.
Now, we have an update from the man himself. In addition to the currently airing House of the Dragon and the soon-to-arrive A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, George RR Martin recently said at the Oxford Writers’ House that there are currently seven Thrones spin-offs in development. Four of them are animated, and three of them are live action.
We believe we know four of these projects, Aegon the Conqueror as Ten Thousand Ships as possible live-action entries and The Golden Empire and Sea Snake as possible animated ones, but whether that’s still the plan is unclear. Martin previously seemed to say two of four animated shows were scrapped, but that may have now changed.
It certainly does not seem likely that all of these will make it to release, and many show concepts have been scrapped, including a Jon Snow sequel series and another that even went so far as to film a pilot. HBO, for all Warner Bros. Discovery’s other problems, seems determined to keep the quality bar high for the brand as they are eternally trying to redeem themselves for the end of Thrones in season 8. So far, House of the Dragon seems to be satisfying that. I believe that show has one more season in it after this.
Despite some complaints about seasonal storylines, House of the Dragon viewership is surging, and HBO has to be more than satisfied with its performance. It’s also a show that is able to fully draw on the source material of Martin, and the same will be true for A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms. As for the rest, it may be a bit more thin, depending on the project, but it’s clear that Martin will be involved to some extent in all of them, the running joke of course that he will do anything to not finish Winds of Winter, the ghost of a book that may never actually see release.
Regardless, it’s hard not to imagine that we won’t see a few big hits come out of this pile. I am particularly interesting in seeing some Game of Thrones animated series, given how many fantastic animated adaptations of properties we’ve seen to do from Arcane to Cyberpunk to Castlevania and more. If the right team handles them, those shows could be incredible.
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