Last week HBO announced that the Game of Thrones prequel pilot from author and co-executive producer George R.R. Martin and writer Jane Goldman (Kick-Ass, Kingsman) had been greenlit. Now Martin has shared his perspective on his blog, taking the time to clarify information that has already been revealed, but also giving fans a better idea of what they can likely expect.
In discussing what this pilot would tackle in the Game of Thrones universe, Martin explained:
“Yes, this is a prequel, not a sequel. None of the characters or actors from GAME OF THRONES will appear in the new show. All of the successor shows we’ve been developing have been prequels, as I have mentioned before. This one really puts the PRE in prequel, since it is set not ninety years before GAME OF THRONES (like Dunk & Egg), or a few hundred years, but rather ten thousand years (well, assuming the oral histories of the First Men are accurate, but there are maesters at the Citadel who insist it has only been half that long). We’re very early in the process, of course, with the pilot order just in, so we don’t have a director yet, or a cast, or a location, or even a title. (My vote would be THE LONG NIGHT, which says it all, but I’d be surprised if that’s where we end up. More likely HBO will want to work the phrase “game of thrones” in there somewhere. We’ll know sooner or later).”
He also dove into what we could expect from the other shows that HBO has in development as part of their spinoff deal and revealed one of them is already not moving forward:
“As for the other successor shows…if you have been following along, you know that we started with four, and eventually went to five. One of those has been shelved, I am given to understand, and of course Jane’s pilot is now moving to film. But that does not mean the others are dead. Three more GAME OF THRONES prequels, set in different periods and featuring different characters and storylines, remain in active development. Everything I am told indicates that we could film at least one more pilot, and maybe more than one, in the years to come. We do have an entire world and tens of thousands of years of history to play with, after all. But this is television, so nothing is certain.”
The other four writers working on spinoffs are Max Borenstein, Brian Helgeland, Cary Wray, and Bryan Cogman. The other scripts have yet to be greenlit, but there doesn’t appear to be any rush or pressure to do so right away.
While no additional details have been released, HBO’s desire to keep the final season of Game of Thrones separate and its own before launching the spinoffs may mean a 2020 launch for the prequel pilot.
