We’re speeding toward the end of Game of Thrones (*sniffle*), and that’s something we just have to accept (knock it off, you promised yourself you wouldn’t cry). But while the end of the main series begins to come into view, anyone who has been paying attention knows that this is more than likely not the end of our time in Westeros and the surrounding areas.
For a while now we’ve been hearing about the potential for a spinoff series, which would focus on other stories set in other times. Those familiar with author George R.R. Martin‘s “A Song of Ice and Fire” world know there’s an incredible amount of history there, much of which would make for some great TV. HBO’s president of programming Casey Bloys talked about this recently, saying it would more likely be a prequel series than a spinoff. He also revealed that season eight of the current show, the final season, could end up being a little longer than previously believed.
See what he had to say below.
Speaking to Entertainment Weekly, Boys said of the Game of Thrones prequel potential:
“It’s such a big property we would be foolish not to explore it, but it’s a pretty high bar. We’ll take some shots at it. I’m not going to do it just to do it. It has to feel very special. I would rather have no sequel and leave it as-is then have something we rushed out.
A prequel feels like it has less pressure on it [than a spin-off]. [Author George R.R. Martin’s history of Westeros] gives you areas in which to say to a writer, “˜If you were going to do this, then go flesh it out,’ and we’ll see what comes back. But I don’t feel any pressure that we have to have something.”
I always assumed any spinoff would be set in the past anyway. The most likely two stories to follow would be the Mad King and Robert’s Rebellion, which directly impacted the stories we’ve been watching unfold on the current show, or an adaptation of Martin’s “Tales of Dunk and Egg” novellas, which are set 100 years prior to the events of Thrones.
Personally, I say do both of them and more. Create a Game of Thrones anthology series in which each season tells a new story from the history books of Westeros and beyond. Season one: Robert’s Rebellion. Season two: Dunk and Egg. Season three: the Children of the Forest. Season four: the end of the Long Night and the building of the Wall (hey, if the building of a church can be as captivating as it was in The Pillars of the Earth, the building of a giant wall to keep out deadly ice zombies after a generation-long winter devastated the land would work just fine). Season five: Old Valyria when it was in its prime. I could go on and on. The point is, there’s lots and lots of great stuff fans of the series would love to see more of on the small screen.
As for Game of Thrones season eight, it seemed quite likely that the final 13 episodes we were supposedly getting would be split up into a seven-episode season seven, and then a six-episode grand finale. But as it turns out, that’s not etched in stone yet. Showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss came into the show thinking it would run about 70-75 episodes if they got their wish to tell a set story with no filler or padding to stretch it out longer than it needed to be. Those 13 final episodes would have landed it at 73 total episodes. But it’s hard to know exactly how many it will take to tell the full story until you get to the end, and a final decision on how many episodes season eight will ultimately be has not been made yet.
Bloys said:
“They’re still figuring out the shape of the season, what they want to do. I’ll take as many as they want to do. If they give me eight, I’ll want 10. But it’s really up to them. They’ll let me know.”
The seven episode seventh season of Game of Thrones arrives sometime this summer. You can find much more related content right here.
What stories would you like to see told in any spinoff or prequel series we might get?
[Source: EW]
Follow me on Twitter.
No Comments »
No comments yet.
RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URL
Leave a comment