TAGGED AS: Fantasy, HBO, HBO Max, streaming, television, TV
(Photo by HBO)
A second Game of Thrones prequel has been ordered to series: A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms: The Hedge Knight. Warner Bros. Discovery announced the news at a rebranding event for HBO Max’s May transition to “Max.” The series, based on author George R.R. Martin’s Dunk and Egg novellas, expands the Thrones kingdom beyond House of the Dragon, which is in production on its second season.
With The Hedge Knight news, that means there are nine prequel and sequel series in development or in the works. Given the abundance of material Martin has written about his A Song of Ice and Fire world, HBO and its rebranded streaming service, Max, will be in the business of Thrones for many years to come.
Here’s where things stand with the nine series continuing and in development.
(Photo by HBO)
WHAT’S IT ABOUT
Infighting among the Targaryens over the Iron Throne, set around 200 years before Game of Thrones.
SOURCE
HBO
WHAT WE KNOW
Executive producer Ryan Condal couldn’t make last year’s Emmys because he was busy working on the second season of House of the Dragon. Miguel Sapochnik, who co-ran season 1 with Condal, left the show (though he continues to work with HBO). We learned last year that Alan Taylor, a former GoT director, will direct episodes of season 2, and serve as an EP. No final word yet on when the show will return (HBO and HBO Max content CEO Casey Bloys indirectly suggests summer 2024) or how Queen Rhaenyra will avenge the death of her son by the dragon of her nephew.
STATUS
Season 1 is available to stream via subscription on HBOMax (soon to be Max) and to buy on Vudu, Prime Video, and Apple TV, while season 2 is in production.
(Photo by HBO Home Entertainment)
WHAT’S IT ABOUT?
How Westeros was forced to bend the knee under one ruler: Aegon I Targaryen, aka Aegon the Conqueror.
SOURCE
Variety, April 2023
WHAT WE KNOW
HBO is said to be going way back in the history of Westeros for a proposed prequel about Aegon I Targaryen. This potential feature film and series would focus on how Aegon conquered six of the seven kingdoms of Westeros, with the help of his queens (who were also his sisters), Visenya Targaryen and Rhaenys Targaryen, their dragons and an army. But mostly because dragons.
(The siblings are portrayed above in a screencap from Game of Thrones animated featurette Conquest & Rebellion: An Animated History of the Seven Kingdoms.)
Basically, the project, if brought to fruition, would show how a power-hungry Targaryen took over Westeros and became its first king, melding together all those swords to form the Iron Throne.
Dorne, the land where GoT character Prince Oberyn Martell (Pedro Pascal) and his daughters, the Sand Snakes, are from, was the lone kingdom that managed to hold off the Targaryen campaign, so we can only hope we’d get to see the Targaryens losing for once.
STATUS
In discussions, per Variety.
(Photo by Helen Sloan/HBO)
WHAT’S IT ABOUT
Jon Snow (Kit Harington), aka Aegon Targaryen, after the Game of Thrones series finale.
SOURCE
George R.R. Martin confirmed it on his Not a Blog, after THR broke the news in June 2022.
WHAT WE KNOW
There are no details to find other than this show will center on Jon Snow after the events of the series that introduced him. What makes this show unique, however, is that it is being spearheaded by Harington. Per Martin, the show, tentatively titled Snow, is all Harington’s doing.
“Yes, it was Kit Harrington (sic) who brought the idea to us,” Martin wrote on his blog last summer. “I cannot tell you the names of the writers/ showrunners, since that has not been cleared for release yet… but Kit brought them in too, his own team, and they are terrific.” In the meantime, Harington booked an HBO return in season 3 of Industry.
STATUS
THR described Snow as being in “early development.” There’s been no word from HBO.
WHAT’S IT ABOUT
The series is based on Martin’s Dunk & Egg novella series. HBO provided the following series description: “A century before the events of Game of Thrones, two unlikely heroes wandered Westeros… a young, naïve but courageous knight, Ser Duncan the Tall, and his diminutive squire, Egg. 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.”
SOURCE
HBO
WHAT WE KNOW
The series will be written and executive produced by George R.R. Martin and Ira Parker. Ryan Condal and Vince Gerardis will also executive produce.
STATUS
In April, at an event for their rebranded streaming service Max, HBO announced the series is ordered to series.
WHAT’S IT ABOUT
Set 1,000 years before GoT, 10,000 Ships is likely to center around Princess Nymeria and the Rhoynar, who fled Essos and eventually settled in Dorne.
SOURCE
Deadline broke the news of this prequel and two others in March 2021, with the other trades (THR, Variety) quickly matching the story.
WHAT WE KNOW
What’s been reported so far doesn’t exactly lay out a plot. So, it’s not clear if this potential prequel would focus on how the Rhoynars got to the point of fleeing Essos for Dorne, centering around the Second Spice War with the Valyrian Freehold (i.e. Targaryens and dragons), and Volantis (the place Robb Stark’s wife Talisa is from), or the survivors’ journey on those 10,000 ships to settle Dorne.
Nymeria, of course, ends up being the name of Arya Stark’s direwolf in GoT, and one of Oberyn Martell’s Sand Snake daughters.
Martin noted in March 2022 on his Not a Blog that Amanda Segel (Person of Interest), who is the showrunner, had “delivered a couple of drafts of that one,” and they are “forging ahead.”
STATUS
No official word from HBO, but Deadline said it was another show “in consideration” when it first published its report in March 2021.
(Photo by HBO)
WHAT’S IT ABOUT?
Corlys Velaryon’s seafaring voyages around the world.
SOURCE
In March 2022, Martin wrote on his Not a Blog that the initial name of the show — 9 Voyages — had been changed to The Sea Snake since there is another prequel with numbers in the title in development.
WHAT WE KNOW
Rome boss Bruno Heller is in charge of this series, which focuses on House of the Dragon character Lord Corlys Velaryon (played by Steve Toussaint in the current series). The potential show doesn’t really make sense as a spinoff involving Toussaint, since his story is still unfolding in House of the Dragon. Best guess is that the series would be a prequel focusing on the young Sea Snake and his journeys across the oceans before and/or including his courtship and marriage to Rhaenys Targaryen.
STATUS
In development as of March 2021
(Photo by HBO Home Entertainment)
WHAT THEY’RE ABOUT
It’s unclear what No. 1 will focus on, but reports call it a GoT animated series that — as THR put it — is “adult-leaning.” The other series, which we heard about in July 2021, is a mystery.
SOURCE
THR, GRRM’s Not a Blog
WHAT WE KNOW
In January 2021, we learned No. 1 was in development for HBO Max. According to THR at the time, HBO had been meeting with writers. A few months later, news of two more animated projects dropped via the outlet — The Golden Empire, which we’ve written about below — and another unnamed series.
Last year, Martin expressed his enthusiasm about the potential shows in his blog, He said he was not able to divulge any information, “except to say that things are moving very fast.”
(The image above is another screencap from Conquest & Rebellion. This one shows the destruction of Valyria in the Doom. A series — animated or not — about the period leading up to and portraying the Doom would be amazing.)
STATUS
In development, per Martin’s March 2022 Not a Blog.
WHAT’S IT ABOUT
Yi Ti, which is on the far East side of Essos and was inspired by Imperial China. The land is described as green with basilisks rumored to be roaming sweltering jungles, great cities, and game of thrones of its own (read more at A Wiki of Ice and Fire).
SOURCE
THR first shared news of this one in July 2021
WHAT WE KNOW
According to Martin in his March 2022 blog: “News leaked several months ago that one of the animated shows would be set in Yi Ti. That’s true. Our working title is The Golden Empire, and we have a great young writer on that one too, and I think the art and animation is just going to be beautiful.”
STATUS
In development, but as Martin noted while speaking of the group of animated shows, “things are moving very fast.” He added he loved some of the concept art he’s seen so far.
WHAT’S IT ABOUT
People living in the King’s Landing slum Flea Bottom
SOURCE
Deadline broke the news of this prequel and two others in March 2021, with the other trades (THR, Variety) quickly matching the story.
WHAT WE KNOW
None of the trades had any specific details other than it’s based in Flea Bottom, which we know is the slum where Ser Davos Seaworth (Liam Cunningham) is from and where Gendry Baratheon (Joe Dempsie) is found smithing away in GoT. It’s a tightly packed maze of streets with lower-class ale houses, gambling halls, and brothels.
STATUS
Dead. THR reported in July 2021 this would not be moving forward.
