House of the Dragon resurrected the world’s interest in Game of Thrones, but don’t get too excited about the Jon Snow sequel series and other spinoffs.
The rise and fall of Game of Thrones should be seen as a pop culture parable. It had it all: worldwide fans, second-to-none storytelling, calculated spectacle – only to burn itself to ashes in its final season.
It was the biggest show in The Known World, piercing the mainstream lexicon with George R.R. Martin’s jargon and mythos, but the disastrous reception to its closing episodes may as well have been an extinction-level event.
Then came House of the Dragon, a spectacular prequel exploring an infamous Targaryen civil war. It revived interest in the franchise for audiences and HBO, seemingly paving the way for several spinoffs – but with winter coming, it seems we’ve got ahead of ourselves.
HBO casts doubt over Game of Thrones spinoffs & Jon Snow series
As well as House of the Dragon, it was believed there were several spinoffs in the works, including a Jon Snow sequel series, an adaptation of the Tales of Dunk and Egg novellas, The Sea Snake, 10,000 Steps, an animated GoT series called The Golden Empire, and a series (and possibly a movie) based on Aegon’s conquest.
Well, fans should hold the door for now. Speaking to TVLine, HBO CEO and chairman Casey Bloys said: “We always have Game of Thrones scripts in development. We greenlit Dunk and Egg in the spring.”
The Dunk and Egg adaptation has been titled A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms: The Hedge Knight, and it’s expected to start shooting in early 2024 “pending the SAG strike resolution.”
Subscribe to our newsletter for the latest updates on Esports, Gaming and more.
A century before @GameofThrones, there was Ser Duncan the Tall and his squire, Egg.Executive produced by George R. R. Martin, Ira Parker, Ryan Condal, and Vince Gerardis, A Knight of the #SevenKingdoms: The Hedge Knight has received a straight to series order. #StreamOnMax pic.twitter.com/MRPUke5Upt
— Max (@StreamOnMax) April 12, 2023
As for the rest? It’s not a case of when they’ll happen – it’s certainly if. “I wouldn’t say there is anything else in that world that is close to a green light or anything, but we are always working on different scripts and ideas,” he added.
In fairness, we still don’t know much if anything about the Jon Snow series. It’s presumed it’d follow the character following the events of the finale, when he left Castle Black and headed north of the wall.
“He’s gotta go back up to the place with all this history and live out his life thinking about how he killed Danny… about Ygritte dying in his arms… about how he hung Olly, and…about all of this trauma… and that… that’s interesting,” Kit Harrington earlier told EW.
In a blog post last year, Martin also wrote: “There’s not much more I can tell you, not until HBO gives me a green light. I cannot tell you the names of the writers/showrunners, since that has not been cleared for release yet… but Kit brought them in too, his own team, and they are terrific.”
You can find out more about House of the Dragon Season 2 here, and check out our other Game of Thrones content here.