If you thought HBO wasn’t going to do a sequel to Game of Thrones? Well, you know nothing. After swearing up and down that the much beloved [checks notes]… Sorry, roundly loathed finale of Game of Thrones would be the end of the Stark family saga, and any other series would look backwards, not forwards, news broke last night (June 16) that a Game of Thrones sequel series is in development at HBO. The new series, if it should move forward, will focus on Jon Snow, with Kit Harington attached to star.
This is, of course, surprising on a number of levels, though HBO reversing position on the sequel is the least of them. HBO isn’t exactly struggling in general, but they haven’t yet launched a series that matched the lofty heights of Thrones in its heyday, at least in the sci-fi/fantasy space. Euphoria, and HBO’s Sunday night mystery series, are clearly a big source of interest and viewers for the cable network and their HBO Max streaming service. On the other hand, Westworld, The Nevers and other supernatural/sci-fi/fantasy series have either stalled at the gate, or have not quite captured the national — and international — attention that GoT did.
They’ve also had a few tries at a Thrones spinoff project fizzle, including a reportedly very expensive prequel project starring Naomi Watts get shot, then killed before launch. Other prequel series are in various stages of development, including what is currently called 10,000 Ships from showrunner Amanda Segel, 9 Voyages from Bruno Heller, and a Dunk and Egg show based on the short stories by George R.R. Martin, from Steve Conrad. That’s in addition to three animated prequel projects, including The Golden Empire, set in the land of Yi Ti, and others.
However, there is one that has made it past the trial by combat: House of the Dragon, which will launch on HBO and HBO Max this August. Even that, though, is set hundreds of years before Thrones, and while the names sound familiar (the show focuses mostly on the incestual Targaryen family) and it boasts stars like Matt Smith and Rhys Ifans, among others, is not the surefire slam-dunk HBO might want… Particularly as the much hyped Lord of the Rings series will launch mere weeks later on Amazon’s Prime Video.
On the other hand, despite the poor feelings from the end of Thrones, launching a direct sequel makes a good deal of business sense. But does it make story sense? When we last left the morose Jon Snow, he had killed his aunt/lover Daenerys (Emilia Clarke), and left the throne to everyone’s first choice, Bran Stark (Isaac Hempstead Wright). Not only that, but he headed North to hang out with his burly Wildling friends and never see anyone else ever again.
So will this be an Obi-Wan Kenobi situation, where Jon Snow gets drawn back into Westeros for one! last! job? Is Jon Snow: The Series an ongoing series, or a limited one? Details are extremely low at the moment, other than Harington’s involvement in the project. We don’t even know which writers or directors are on board. Or if anyone has interrupted George R.R. Martin’s schedule of blogging about TV shows he’s not involved in and giving extensive, long interviews about how people should leave him alone about writing the next book in the series because he’s so busy writing, to let him know this is happening.
Either way, this is big news, and potentially opens up Thrones for the series we all really want: Arya Stark’s (Maisie Williams) queer pirate adventures east of Westeros.
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