Game of Thrones: All the Spinoffs in the Works and What We Know So Far
The ‘House of the Dragon’ prequel series premiered in August 2022 — and more spinoffs are reported in development at HBO
Winter continues to come for lovers of Game of Thrones.
Since the hugely popular show aired its series finale in May 2019, multiple spinoff series went into development — and are still going into development — at HBO.
The first, the popular prequel series, House of the Dragon, released in August 2022, and additional projects, including a show based on another popular book series by author George R. R. Martin, are also apparently launched.
Read on for a breakdown of all the Thrones-related offshoots that have popped up so far. (And one that has been felled like the Night King.)
The Naomi Watts-led prequel
Shortly after the Thrones series finale, HBO announced that five prequel series were in development. Among them was an untitled project unofficially referred to as The Long Night by Martin, who co-created the concept with showrunner Jane Goldman.
The prequel was set to take place thousands of years before the events of GOT, chronicling “the world’s descent from the golden Age of Heroes into its darkest hour.”
“From the horrifying secrets of Westeros’ history to the true origin of the White Walkers, the mysteries of the East to the Starks of legend, only one thing is for sure: It’s not the story we think we know,” the official description said .
Naomi Watts was cast in the lead role alongside Naomi Ackie (I Wanna Dance with Somebody), Denise Gough (Broadway’s Angels in America), Josh Whitehouse (Daisy Jones & The Six) and several others.
The full pilot episode, directed by S.J. Clarkson, was shot in Northern Ireland. But in October 2019, HBO pulled the plug.
“After careful consideration, we have decided not to move forward to series with the untitled Game of Thrones prequel,” the network said in a statement at the time. “We thank Jane Goldman, S.J. Clarkson and the talented cast and crew for all of their hard work and dedication.”
House of the Dragon
The same day the untitled project was canceled, HBO gave the green light to another prequel series that eventually had a successful premiere on Aug. 21, 2022.
Based on the 2018 prequel book Fire & Blood, House of the Dragon is co-created by Martin and Ryan Condal, who acted as co-showrunner alongside Miguel Sapochnik for season 1. Sapochnik — the director of some of the most memorable GOT episodes, including “The Bells,” “The Long Night” and “Battle of the Bastards” — stepped down from the position, leaving Condal as the only showrunner for the show’s second season, which was announced shortly after the success of its first episode.
The series centers on House Targaryen, the dynasty that will ultimately be responsible for GOT’s Daenerys Targaryen (Emilia Clarke), during the reign of King Viserys (Paddy Considine). As Viserys wishes to pass down the kingdom to a male successor, his son’s death gives him no choice but to appoint his daughter Rhaenyra (Emma D’Arcy) to the throne.
Rhaenyra’s younger half-brother, Aegon II Targaryen (Tom Glynn-Carney), challenges her claim to the throne and ignites a civil war among House Targaryen — known as the Dance of the Dragons — that takes place nearly 200 years before the events in Game of Thrones.
Also starring is Matt Smith as Prince Daemon Targaryen, Olivia Cooke as Queen Alicent Hightower, Rhys Ifans as Otto Hightower, Fabien Frankel as Criston Cole, Steve Toussaint as Lord Corlys Velaryon and many more.
With season 2 beginning production in the U.K. in April 2023, Condal said that the team is “thrilled to be shooting again with members of our original family as well as new talents on both sides of the camera.”
“All your favorite characters will soon be conspiring at the council tables, marching with their armies and riding their dragons into battle,” reads the official press release.
A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms: The Hedge Knight
In April 2023, Variety announced a GOT prequel series — based on Martin’s series of novellas, the Tales of Dunk and Egg — was issued a straight-to-series order at HBO.
The story takes place 90 years before the events of Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire series that served as the inspiration for GOT, and tells the tale of Ser Duncan the Tall (Dunk), a knight who eventually joins the Kingsguard, and his young squire Aegon V Targaryen (Egg), who eventually becomes king.
“Set in an age when the Targaryen line still holds the Iron Throne and the memory of the last dragon has not yet passed from living memory, great destinies, powerful foes and dangerous exploits all await these improbable and incomparable friends,” reads the official description.
Martin and Ira Parker will both co-write and co-executive produce the drama series, with Condal and GOT producer Vince Gerardis as executive producers as well.
Shortly after the news, Martin wrote a celebratory post on his blog, revealing that “the writing is well underway,” with no official date set in stone yet.
“Ira has assembled a small but very talented team, and they are at it already, building on the foundations laid down last year in previous creative summits … and of course on the original novella,” Martin wrote. “The Dunk & Egg novellas are fully-fleshed narratives more like the novels of A Song of Ice & Fire than the imaginary history of Fire & Blood; the stories are right there on the page, and our goal is to produce faithful adaptations of those tales for the screen.”
Martin has published three novellas in the series so far: The Hedge Knight, The Sworn Sword and The Mystery Knight.
9 Voyages, Flea Bottom and 10,000 Ships
Deadline reported in March 2021 that HBO is developing a trio of ideas for new spinoffs set in Martin’s world.
These projects include 9 Voyages, a series that reportedly will follow Corlys Velaryon, a.k.a. the Sea Snake and will be helmed by Gotham creator Bruno Heller; a project set in Flea Bottom, the slum district in King’s Landing; and a show based around the 10,000 Ships — a reference to the journey made by warrior queen Princess Nymeria, whom Arya Stark (Maisie Williams) named her direwolf after on Game of Thrones — which will be written by Amanda Segel.
Plans for a Flea Bottom series have since been scrapped, according to a 2021 update from The Hollywood Reporter.
In a 2022 blog post, Martin stated that spinoffs are “still in the script stage.”
“Outlines and treatments have been written and approved, scripts have been written, notes have been given [and] second and third drafts have been written,” Martin wrote. “That is the way television works. Please note: nothing has been green-lit yet, and there is no guarantee when or if it will be … on any of these shows.”
A 2023 New Year’s Eve update from Martin revealed that 9 Voyages would switch from a live-action format into an animated series. “A move I support fully,” he wrote. “Budgetary constraints would likely have made a live action version prohibitively expensive, what with half the show taking place at sea, and the necessity of creating a different port every week.”
An animated drama
According to The Hollywood Reporter, an animated drama set in the GOT universe is also in early development at HBO Max. Though animated, the outlet reported that the series would be “adult-leaning.”
“The animated shows are coming along great,” Martin told The Hollywood Reporter in 2022. “The concept art is absolutely stunning.”
In March 2022, Martin wrote on his blog that they have a working title (The Golden Empire), which “would be set in Yi Ti.”
No deals have been made regarding the animated series, so it’s possible it may end up getting scrapped.
A Song of Ice and Fire
Despite all the prequels in the works, eight seasons of GOT and countless books published by Martin, there is still some source material missing.
The author has yet to finish the Song of Ice and Fire series, which served as source material for GOT. So far, five books in the series have been published.
Decades after the first book was released in 1996, there are still two more to come: The Winds of Winter and A Dream of Spring.
In July 2022, Martin said that he’s “been at work in [his] winter garden.”
“Things are growing … and changing, as does happen with us gardeners,” he wrote on his blog of the long-awaited The Winds of Winter. “Things twist, things change, new ideas come to me (thank you, muse), old ideas prove unworkable, I write, I rewrite, I restructure, I rip everything apart and rewrite again, I go through doors that lead nowhere and doors that open on marvels.”
While Martin has said there will be similarities between the TV show’s ending and the ending in the books, his “gardening is taking [him] further and further away from the television series.”
The sixth installment will feature viewpoints unexplored on the show, including Victarion Greyjoy, Arianne Martell, Areo Hotah, Jon Connington and Aeron Damphair, as well as a myriad of secondary characters.
“There will be new characters as well,” Martin wrote. “No new viewpoints, I promise you that, but with all these journeys and battles and scheming to come, inevitably our major players will be encountering new people in lands far and near.”
“I think [The Winds of Winter is] going to be a very big book … and I think I’m about three-quarters of the way done,” Martin said in an appearance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert in October 2022. “The characters all interweave, and I’m actually finished with a couple of the characters, but not others. I have to finish all that weaving, but it’s still going to take me a while.”
A Jon Snow-centered sequel series
In June 2022, a story by The Hollywood Reporter revealed that HBO is in the early stages of developing a sequel series centered around Jon Snow. The news outlet additionally reported that Kit Harington, who portrayed the beloved character in the original series, is “attached to reprise the role should a series move forward.”
In the series finale airing in 2019, Jon was banished from Westeros and traveled North of the Wall with the Wildlings thereafter.
In December 2022, Harington reflected on his character after these events, claiming Snow is “not okay.”
“I think if you asked him, he would’ve felt he got off lightly,” the actor told Entertainment Weekly. “At the end of the show when we find him in that cell, he’s preparing to be beheaded and he wants to be. He’s done. The fact he goes to the Wall is the greatest gift and also the greatest curse.”
Martin confirmed his involvement with the series in a 2022 blog post, saying Harrington was the person behind the series idea. “Kit’s team have visited me here in Santa Fe and worked with me and my own team of brilliant, talented writer/consultants to hammer out the show,” he wrote.
Aegon’s Conquest prequel
A Feb. 8 story by The Hollywood Reporter detailed plans for a direct prequel to the critically acclaimed House of the Dragon. Working with Mattson Tomlin, a writer on the forthcoming 2025 film The Batman Part II, HBO looks to expand the story of conqueror Aegon Targaryen, the first patriarch of the Targaryen dynasty. Aegon unified six of the Seven Kingdoms under his rule with his sister-wives Rhaenys and Visenya and their three dragons.
Variety reported that the network was discussing the series idea last April. A source described the project to THR as a “back to basics” take on Martin’s extended fantasy universe — though as of now, it’s unclear what that means.
