‘Game of Thrones’ Spin-offs: George R.R. Martin Still Co-Writing Two of Them, But Nothing Will Be Ready for A Long Time
As development of the “Game of Thrones” spinoffs get underway, HBO confirmed that two of the four projects are being co-written by author George R.R. Martin.
Martin wrote in a blog post this May that he was working on all four “successor” shows, and he did indeed meet with the writers behind all four shows: Max Borenstein, Jane Goldman, Brian Helgeland, and Carly Wray. But as originally reported, Martin will actually co-write with two of them: Goldman and Wray.
“The four writers, he talked to all of them and we left it up to them whether they wanted George involved in the writing,” said HBO programming president Casey Bloys. “Two have him co-creating and two don’t. That was their choice.”
Still, all four (not five at this point, even though Martin hinted at a fifth in that blog post) concepts are based on the world that Martin has created. “I don’t want to get into specifics, but the writers aren’t coming up with something that doesn’t already exist in his timeline,” Bloys said.
As for the timing, Bloys said no spin-off is expected to premiere until at least a year after the “Game of Thrones” finale. And HBO isn’t even sure yet when the eighth and final season of “Thrones” will run – including the possibility that it’s not ready until 2019.
“We haven’t even gamed it out because I haven’t even seen an outline of any of the spinoffs yet,” Bloys said. “It will be determined by, first I have to see the outlines and scripts and see if any of them are even worth planning out. Once we see if we have something to work with, then I’ll worry about when we shoot it and get it on the air. It’s not going to be on the air before, and I would guess for at least a year after the finale. Because we don’t want anything to distract from that.”
“Thrones” executive producers Dan Weiss and David Benioff, as has been widely reported, won’t be involved with the successor shows (especially as they turn their focus to “Confederate”), although they will be attached as executive producers on all projects – as will Martin.
Wrote Martin in May: “None of these new shows will be ‘spinning off’ from GOT in the traditional sense. We are not talking ‘Joey’ or ‘AfterMASH’ or even ‘Frasier’ or ‘Lou Grant,’ where characters from one show continue on to another… Every one of the concepts under discussion is a prequel, rather than a sequel. Some may not even be set on Westeros.”
