No one knows what the possible future Game of Thrones spinoffs could cover, but author George R. R. Martin has made it clear what the shows definitely won’t be about.
Ever since it was announced that up to four Game of Thrones spinoffs are in development at HBO, Varys’s little birds have been abuzz with speculation. George R. R. Martin has spoken out with surprising new information: Two of the most obvious storylines will not become shows.
In a blog post on Sunday, May 14, Martin wrote, “We had four scripts in development when I arrived in LA last week, but by the time I left we had five. We have added a fifth writer to the original four. No, I will not reveal the name here.”
About the subjects of the spinoffs, he also revealed that Robert’s Rebellion — the prequel involving Robert Baratheon’s rise, the Mad King’s fall, and Jon Snow’s parents meeting — will not be among them. Neither will his Tales of Dunk & Egg novellas, which feature Aegon V Targaryen before he was king. Martin explained:
We’re not doing Dunk & Egg. Eventually, sure, I’d love that, and so would many of you. But I’ve only written and published three novellas to date, and there are at least seven or eight or ten more I want to write. We all know how slow I am, and how fast a television show can move. I don’t want to repeat what happened with GAME OF THRONES itself, where the show gets ahead of the books. When the day comes that I’ve finished telling all my tales of Dunk & Egg, then we’ll do a tv show about them… but that day is still a long ways off. We’re not doing Robert’s Rebellion either…by the time I finish writing A SONG OF ICE & FIRE, you will know every important thing that happened in Robert’s Rebellion. There would be no surprises or revelations left in such a show…
With these two possibilities eliminated, the following five eras are the most likely grounds for these spinoffs: The Doom of Valyria, which would be about the mysterious disaster that ruined the once-advanced civilization known as the Valyrian Freehold. The origins of the Night’s King and Stark ancestor Bran the Builder; the Targaryen civil war, known as the Dance of the Dragons, the Blackfyre Rebellion, about more Targaryen infighting, and Aegon’s Conquest, which founded the Targaryen dynasty.
Of course, there’s still the possibility that the story will choose characters who are not famous monarchs but rather average Joes who are bystanders to the bloody history of Westeros and Essos.
The Game of Thrones spinoffs do not yet have release dates. Game of Thrones continues with its seventh and penultimate season on July 16.
