HBO Developing Game of Thrones Spinoffs

CBR

By Tim Adams

Published May 4, 2017

After long-swirling rumors, HBO is finally looking to create multiple spinoffs of its popular series Game of Thrones.

After much speculation, HBO may be moving closer to developing multiple spinoffs to hit drama "Game of Thrones."

Variety reports that the cable network has tapped writers Max Borenstein (“Kong: Skull Island”), Jane Goldman (“Kingsman: The Golden Circle”), Brian Helgeland (“Legend”), and Carly Wray (“The Leftovers”) to work on the four potential future projects, with Goldman and Wray collaborating directly with author George R.R. Martin. Executive producers and showrunners Dan Weiss and David Benioff are also attached to the spinoffs.

No timetable was given, as an HBO spokesperson said, "We’ll take as much or as little time as the writers need and, as with all our development, we will evaluate what we have when the scripts are in."

This isn't the first time there have been rumblings of potential spinoffs as "Game of Thrones" nears its end. “All I can say is that we’re exploring it,” Casey Bloys, president of original programming, told journalists during the Television Critics Association’s winter press tour. “We don’t have any scripts, we’re not even close to saying ‘Oh, let’s do this.’ But it’s a big enough property that we would be foolish not to explore it. It’s a really rich world. We’d be foolish not to look at it.”

Talk of a prequel set in Westeros was dismissed last year by co-showrunner David Benioff, who said, “At a certain point, especially if it’s a serialized story, it falls apart and loses its heat and its momentum because there’s a carrying capacity even a world the size of ours has. When you reach that carrying capacity and you try to push it further, people start to wonder when this is going to be over and hope that it will be over soon so they can move onto the next thing. That’s not what we ever wanted.”

The sixth season of "Game of Thrones" concluded last year with Cersei vanquishing her rivals to become Queen of the Seven Kingdoms, Jon Snow being crowned King of the North, and the Mother of Dragons Daenerys setting sail with a full army at her disposal to claim the Iron Throne.

“Game of Thrones” seventh season debuts on HBO on July 16. The series was adapted for television by David Benioff and D. B. Weiss. The seventh season is slated to star Peter Dinklage as Tyrion Lannister, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau as Jaime Lannister, Lena Headey as Cersei Lannister, Emilia Clarke as Daenerys Targaryen and Kit Harington as Jon Snow.