It was recently announced that HBO, in collaboration with series writer George R.R. Martin, is developing four spinoffs in the Game of Thrones universe, set to follow the eight and final season of the epic fantasy series. Now, it looks like there may actually be FIVE spin-offs in the works, according to George R.R. Martin in a recent blog post.
“We had four scripts in development when I arrived in LA last week, but by the time I left we had five,” said the writer. He goes on to talk about a fifth writer added to the original four in charge of the spinoffs, but won’t reveal his name:
“No, I will not reveal the name here. HBO announced the names of the first four, and will no doubt announce the fifth as well, once his deal has closed. He’s a really terrific addition, however, a great guy and a fine writer, and aside from me and maybe Elio and Linda, I don’t know anyone who knows and loves Westeros as well as he does.”
Speaking of spinoffs, George R. R. Martin is not the biggest fan of the term when talking about the upcoming Game of Thrones series:
“None of these new shows will be ‘spinning off’ from GOT in the traditional sense. We are not talking Joey or AfterMASH or even Frazier or Lou Grant, where characters from one show continue on to another. So all of you who were hoping for the further adventures of Hot Pie are doomed to disappointment. Every one of the concepts under discussion is a prequel, rather than a sequel. Some may not even be set on Westeros. Rather than ‘spinoff’ or ‘prequel,’ however, I prefer the term ‘successor show.’ That’s what I’ve been calling them.”
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Martin also went on to rule out the possibility of a prequel exploring Robert’s Rebellion, stating that: “I know thousands of you want that, I know there’s a petition… but by the time I finish writing A Song of Ice & Fire, you will know every important thing that happened in Robert’s Rebellion. There would be no surprises or revelations left in such a show, just the acting out of conflicts whose resolutions you already know. That’s not a story I want to tell just now; it would feel too much like a twice-told tale.”
He also said that while we could eventually see an adaptation of his Dunk & Egg tales, it is not on the cards at present: “Eventually, sure, I’d love that, and so would many of you. But I’ve only written and published three novellas to date, and there are at least seven or eight or ten more I want to write. We all know how slow I am, and how fast a television show can move. I don’t want to repeat what happened with Game of Thrones itself, where the show gets ahead of the books. When the day comes that I’ve finished telling all my tales of Dunk & Egg, then we’ll do a tv show about them… but that day is still a long ways off.”
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Oh, and in case you were wondering, the writer finishes his blog with this nugget of information: “Before someone asks, I AM STILL WORKING ON WINDS OF WINTER and will continue working on it until it’s done. I will confess, I do wish I could clone myself…”
… You can find Jordan on Twitter (@JordJJones), and Facebook.
Originally published May 15, 2017. Updated December 16, 2019.
