There’s another ‘Game of Thrones’ spinoff in the works from one of the writers who has worked on the show for years…
What is dead may never die.
The original ‘Game of Thrones’ series may be coming to an end with season 8 — expected to debut sometime in 2018 or 2019 — but HBO isn’t giving up on the most popular series in the history of the network.
There are currently four different prequel spinoff series in the works at HBO and now a fifth has just been revealed from a current ‘Game of Thrones’ writer working alongside creator George R.R. Martin.
Bryan Cogman — who has been part of the ‘Game of Thrones’ staff since before the show was even on the air — has been working on a prequel series for HBO alongside Martin, who gushed about the project on his blog on Wednesday.
“Bryan Cogman should need no introduction for any GAME OF THRONES fan,” Martin wrote. “He’s been part of the show since the beginning… since before the beginning, actually, since he was first hired as assistant to David Benioff and D.B Weiss way before the series got on the air, before even the pilot had been filmed. From those humble beginnings, he advanced to staff writer, to story editor, to co-producer and producer and supervising producer. Less formally, he has also been GOT’s “Keeper of the Lore,” the guy who knew the canon better than anyone (except me, though sometimes I am not even sure of that).
“He’s written more episodes of GAME OF THRONES than anyone but Dan & David… including some of our very best ones. If [David and Dan] have been the kings of Westeros for these past seven seasons, Bryan Cogman has surely been the Prince of Dragonstone.”
Cogman has written 10 ‘Game of Thrones’ episodes over his many seasons working on the show including ‘Cripples, Bastards and Broken Things’ back in season one as well as ‘Stormborn’ in the most recent season 7.
‘Game of Thrones’ show runners David Benioff and Dan Weiss have already declined to be involved with any of the spinoff series so HBO has hired an all-star writing room to develop the potential replacements for the show once the final season has wrapped.
No ‘Game of Thrones’ prequel series is expected to debut until at least a year after the main show comes to an end, but HBO is wasting no time getting these spinoffs prepped because production would likely have to begin at some point in 2018 to go on the air in 2019.
Martin couldn’t reveal too many details about the new prequel series being written alongside Cogman, but it’s clear he’s excited about the project they have planned.
“I’d love to tell you more about the series Bryan will be working on… but we haven’t done that for the other four successor shows, so we shouldn’t for this one either. All in good time,” Martin wrote.
“I can say that, like the other pilots, it will be a prequel rather than sequel, a successor rather than a spinoff. Bryan’s series will be an adaptation, and one that will thrill most fans of the books, I think, set during a very exciting period of Westerosi history. And I’ll be working with him every step of the way; we’re going to be co-creating the show.”
Martin has already stated previously that none of the spinoff — or successor shows as he likes to call them – will be set past the end of ‘Game of Thrones’ but rather as prequels from prior history in Westeros. Martin has also ruled out series based on his popular tales based on his “Tales of Dunk and Egg” and he’s also shot down the idea of focusing a series on Robert’s Rebellion — the war started by Robert Baratheon that led to the events in ‘Game of Thrones’.
That being said, there are dozens upon dozens of other stories throughout the history of Westeros that could be used for these ‘Game of Thrones’ series. Martin has cautioned that while five series are now in the works at HBO, not all of them will make it to series, but given the immense success of ‘Game of Thrones’ it’s tough to imagine the network won’t at least try to find an audience for two or three of them once the original series comes to a close.
