It’s almost to the point where revelations of more “Game of Thrones” spinoffs being in development isn’t even really newsworthy anymore. We’re starting to lose track of all of the announcements about what is getting made, what is in development, and what is just an idea in terms of ‘Thrones’ spinoffs at this point. But that isn’t stopping ‘Thrones’ author George R.R. Martin from dropping some teases about even more franchise spinoffs in the works. This time, however, it appears HBO is interested in fully committing to the idea of animation.
In his New Year’s Eve blog post (yes, Martin continues to regularly update his own blog), the author who created the entire ‘Game of Thrones’ franchise talked about his love of the 2023 animated series, “Blue Eye Samurai.” And while it’s really not at all relevant to the discussion, he decided to add some information about how his ‘Thrones’ franchise is in the early stages of bringing some animated adventures to life.
“As it happens, HBO and I have our own animated projects, set in the world of [‘Game of Thrones’],” wrote Martin. “None of them have been greenlit yet, but I think we are getting close to taking the next step with a couple of them. When this last round of development started a few years back, we had four ideas for animated shows, with some great talents attached. Writers rooms and summits, outline and scripts followed in due course… but, alas, two of the original projects were subsequently shelved.”
He added, “Work on the other two animated projects continues apace, however…and meanwhile, we have moved, ‘Nine Voyages,’ our series about the legendary voyages of the Sea Snake, over from live action to animation. A move I support fully. Budgetary constraints would likely have made a live action version prohibitively expensive, what with half the show taking place at sea, and the necessity of creating a different port every week, from Driftmark to Lys to the Basilisk Isles to Volantis to Qarth to… well, on and on and on. There’s a whole world out there. And we have a lot better chance of showing it all with animation. So we now have three animated projects underway.”
Obviously, it’s unlikely HBO is going to move ahead with all three animated series. The network has been very cautious when it comes to expanding the franchise, so this is probably another example of HBO working on multiple projects at once so that at least one gets made. This notion is further supported by Martin, when he answered his own question about whether or not it’s likely the three animated spinoffs will get made.
“No way to know. Nothing is certain in Hollywood,” he said.
What is certain is that the success of “Game of Thrones” and the impressive debut season of “House of the Dragon” has only proven that HBO is going to stay in the big-budget ‘Thrones’ space for a long time to come. And it’s likely we’ll get at least one of these animated adventures along the way.