WhileGame of Thronesfans finally got confirmation that the final season of the HBO series won’t be airing untilnextyear, there’s reason to take heart. This may be the end ofA Song of Ice and Fire, but theGame of Thronesuniverse is set to continue with at least one spinoff series. Indeed, we learned a while ago that HBO had begun work developing five separateGame of Thronesspinoff shows, some of which are prequels, some of which are spinoffs, and some of which are based directly on material from authorGeorge R.R. Martin. But when, exactly, will we see theseGame of Thronesspinoffs? Well, in trueThronesfashion, you’re gonna have to wait.
Speaking at the TCA’s yesterday toTHR, HBO programming presidentCasey Bloysrevealed that there are no plans to drop aGame of Thronesspinoff close to the debut date ofGame of ThronesSeason 8—the earliest we’ll see one of these new series is 2020:
“There are five of them. If we do a pilot and series, nothing is going to air on HBO until at least a year after the final season. We’re not doing a final season and then, ‘Following it at 11 p.m. … .’ I’ve seen some exciting material. We have really great writers working on these; it’s very exciting. But there’s no timetable. Not everybody is on the same schedule, so I’ve seen different versions of different things that are potentially exciting. But there’s no timetable about when a decision would be made about any of them."
Martin is co-writing at least two of theGame of Thronesspinoffs currently in the works, and the writers that have been announced as developing these separate projects areJane Goldman(Kingsman,Stardust),Max Borenstein(Godzilla),Brian Helgeland(L.A. Confidential),Carly Wray(Mad Men), andBryan Cogman, who’s been writing onGame of Thronessince the first season.Game of Thronesshowrunners/creatorsDavid BenioffandD.B. Weissare not involved in these spinoffs.
But while the first spinoff won’t air until 2020, we’ll likely get some clarity on which one (or two, or three) gets the greenlight before then. These arebigshows that take a long time to make, so the odds are pretty good that once the final season ofGame of Thronesis airing, the first spinoff may already be in production.
We’ll find out in due time, but for now check out ourown suggestions for what stories these spinoffs should tell right here.
