‘Game of Thrones’ creator George R.R. Martin announced than another of his fantasy creations is being adapted for television…
George R.R. Martin may best be known as the creator behind ‘Game of Thrones’ but the veteran writer has actually penned a ton of other stories over the years including work on a series called ‘Wild Cards’ that launched all the way back in 1986.
And now the sprawling, fantasy epic is being adapted for television.
According to Martin (via his website), Universal Cable Productions — the same company responsible for ‘Mr. Robot’, ‘Colony’ and ‘The Magicians’ — has acquired the rights to ‘Wild Cards’ with the intention to immediately begin adapting the series for television.
Martin’s assistant editor Melinda Snodgrass and Gregory Noveck (‘Red’, ‘Slow Learner’) are on board as executive producers for the series. Martin won’t be directly involved with the series due to an exclusive developmental deal with HBO as well as his current work on ‘The Winds of Winter’ — the sixth novel in his ‘A Song of Ice and Fire’ series, which serves as the inspiration for ‘Game of Thrones’
The story for ‘Wild Cards’ stretches over 22 books — soon to be 23 — and here’s how Martin describes the series:
“The shared world of the Wild Cards diverged from our own on September 15, 1946 when an alien virus was released in the skies over Manhattan, and spread across an unsuspecting Earth. Of those infected, 90% died horribly, drawing the black queen, 9% were twisted and deformed into jokers, while a lucky 1% became blessed with extraordinary and unpredictable powers and became aces. The world was never the same.”
Martin’s superhero inspired world delves into a much darker corner of the world after humanity is forever changed by the alien virus that infects the population.
Martin isn’t the only writer on the series — dozens of creators and contributors have played a part in ‘Wild Cards’ over the years and it sounds like many of those stories will be adapted for the television series.
“Wild Cards is a series of books, graphic novels, games, but most of all it is a universe, as large and diverse and exciting as the comic book universes of Marvel and DC (though somewhat grittier, and considerably more realistic and more consistent), with an enormous cast of characters both major and minor,” Martin said.
“There are thousands of stories to be told in the world of the Wild Cards, and Gregory and Melinda and UPC hope to be able to tell many of them.”
Of course, Martin cautions that television is a tough business so the rights to ‘Wild Cards’ being retained and a development deal in place doesn’t necessarily mean that the series will come to fruition, but it appears all signs are pointing towards the show getting a lot of support from Universal.
