George R. R. Martin Talks about the Game of Thrones Spin-off Shows

HBO is considering multiple “successor shows” to the smash hit Game of Thrones

While fans are still waiting for The Winds of Winter — book six of the A Song of Ice and Fire series — to finally be published, that doesn’t mean author George R. R. Martin isn’t busy. Already this month news has broken that SyFy channel is adapting one of his novellas and that HBO is considering four different Game of Thrones spin-off shows with Martin involved in writing them. Yesterday, Martin took to his LiveJournal to elaborate on the Game of Thrones sequel shows:

It was stated in some of the reports that I am working with two of the four writers. That’s not quite right. I’ve actually been working with all four of the writers. Every one of the four has visited me here in Santa Fe, some of them more than once, and we’ve spent days together discussing their ideas, the history of Westeros and the world beyond, and sundry details found only in The World of Ice & Fire and The Lands of Ice & Fire… when we weren’t drinking margaritas and eating chile rellenos and visiting Meow Wolf. […]

And there’s more. We had four scripts in development when I arrived in LA last week, but by the time I left we had five.

Martin stressed that none of these shows are spin-offs in the sense of “Joey or AfterMASH or even Frazier or Lou Grant, where characters from one show continue on to another.” Instead, the shows will feature different characters and possible entirely different settings than Game of Thrones, while still taking place in the same world. This means we sadly won’t be seeing the continued adventures of Arya and the Hound, or even a prequel show about Robert’s Rebellion. Martin also said adaptations of his prequel Dunk & Egg novellas was not in the works.

What the shows will be about is still a secret, and it’s impossible to know how many (if any) of them will get made. As for fans of the books? Martin had this bolded message:

And yes, 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, or find a way to squeeze more hours into the day, or a way to go without sleep. But this is what it is, so I keep on juggling. WINDS OF WINTER, five successor shows, FIRE AND BLOOD (that’s the GRRMarillion, remember?), four new Wild Cards books, some things I can’t tell you about yet… it’s a good thing I love my work.

Against Worldbuilding

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