If you are a die-hard ‘Game of Thrones’ fan, it is more likely than not that you have heard the news by now that HBO has greenlit a pilot for one of the spin-offs. And most likely you have started speculation on what that spin-off is going to be about.
Rumor has it that the new show is going to take place around 10,000 years before the events depicted in ‘Game of Thrones,’ taking us all the way back to the “Age of Heroes” spoken of in George R.R. Martin’s source novels, though not in much detail, giving the showroom to do whatever it wants. This is the time period when the Children of the Forest first created the White Walkers, the First Men and the Children of The Forest first made peace agreements, the invasion of the Andals, the Long Night, and also the era of the original Bran Stark and the creation of the Wall, Storm’s End, and Winterfell. According to Vanity Fair, the synopsis for the new show promises to reveal everything “From the horrifying secrets of Westeros’ history to the true origin of the white walkers, the mysteries of the East to the Starks of legend — it’s not the story we think we know.”
As for the timeline of the new show, that is up in the air, though it could take place over a very long time. According to HBO’s announcement:
“The series chronicles the world’s descent from the golden Age of Heroes into its darkest hour. And only one thing is for sure: From the horrifying secrets of Westeros’ history to the true origin of the white walkers, the mysteries of the East, to the Starks of legend… it’s not the story we think we know.”
And of course, this is only one of the spin-offs still in active development. Though the number has gone down from five to four, there are still three others HBO could still move forward with, as Martin himself reminds us:
“Three more GAME OF THRONES prequels, set in different periods and featuring different characters and storylines, remain in active development. Everything I am told indicates that we could film at least one more pilot, and maybe more than one, in the years to come. We do have an entire world and tens of thousands of years of history to play with, after all. But this is television, so nothing is certain.”
Though the probability of HBO actually going with more than one spin-off seems highly unlikely, as HBO chief Casey Bloys did not seem like he was thrilled with the idea when speaking on it back in 2017:
“I think that is probably unlikely. This show is very special. I’m not looking to have as many as possible. My sense right now is we would be very lucky if one of the four rises to the level that we have set. Now, theoretically, what if they’re all great? That’s a high-class problem that I’ll solve when it comes to that. But knowing what we know about the development process, that’s why we wanted to increase our odds. But I do not see a scenario where we have more than one. But again, high-class problem.”
As for the production side of things, the show looks to be led by Jane Goldman of ‘X-Men: First Class,’ ‘Stardust,’ ‘Kick-Ass,’ and ‘Kingsman: The Secret Service,’ who has a way with bringing character and quality to big action pieces and seems to be a good match to bring this particular bit of Westeros history to life. With her behind the wheel, we can have faith that the spin-off will not simply be retreading the same water as ‘Game of Thrones’ and will manage to stand on its own two feet in one way or another. But as with everything ‘Game of Thrones’ right now, we will not know anything for sure for quite some time…
