At the Television Critics Association’s (TCA) summer press tour, HBO president Casey Bloys provided an update on the Game of Thrones spinoffs in the works: The network has decided to move forward with a pilot from A Song of Ice and Fire author George R.R. Martin and Jane Goldman (Kingsman: The Golden Circle, Stardust), while the other four pilots appear to be on hold indefinitely.
While The Verge had previously reported that HBO had ordered Goldman’s pilot, the TCA update better clarifies the fates of the other four pilots, from Max Borenstein, Brian Helgeland, Carly Wray, and Bryan Cogman. One tweet described the other projects as “half dead/half on-hold”; according to The Hollywood Reporter, Bloys said, “Beyond that, no plans to make other ones.” HBO is currently starting the search for a director and a casting director, with the pilot expected to go into production in early 2019, perhaps as early as January.
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We don’t know too much about Martin and Goldman’s pilot, but the recent news about its pickup provided some information: It’s set ten thousand years before the events of ASOIAF, and seems likely to touch upon the Long Night, both judging from the synopsis below and Martin’s own suggestion of The Long Night as a title. The official logline from HBO:
Taking place thousands of years before the events of Game of Thrones, 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’s 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.
In addition to both Kingsmen films and Stardust, Goldman has also written the screenplays for Kick-Ass, X-Men: First Class, X-Men: Days of Future Past, and Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children. She is also attached to Disney’s upcoming live-action remake of The Little Mermaid.
The eighth and final season of Game of Thrones will premiere in the first half of 2019, Bloys said. Previous rumors have suggested that it will return in April.
“Are you Mr. Dunlop? Well, you’re either closing your eyes to a situation you do not wish to acknowledge, or you fail to recognize the caliber of disaster represented by the presence of a sPoiler in your community.
Well, ya got trouble, my friend…”
Honestly, this is the worst news imaginable for an ASoIaF book fan. The mysteries of the origins of both House Stark and the Others are absolutely vital to the books. This is the one possible prequel that has the potential to ruin everything. If GRRM is willing to let this go forward, it may very well mean he has given up on finishing the books.
The blurb about this prequel implies that the story presented in the main series about the White Walker’s origins is inaccurate at best, out right wrong at worst. If it is not, then this a shameless tease. If it is, it would seem to be retconning for the sake of retconning.
I wouldn’t actually mind if the origin story @2 mentions turns out to be false. It felt thoroughly “off”–a simple answer meant to tie things up within the confines of the main series. As opposed to the story implied by the conspicuous holes in The World of Ice and Fire (particularly the lack of any origin story for either the Night’s Watch or the Citadel), which suggests some spectacular, long-term, organized lying about this question in-universe.
And (shock horror). . .I’m not bothered if GRRM doesn’t finish the main series of novels. In an ideal world, I’d prefer for him to tie them up in an alternate canon that’s much more complex than the TV version. But I suspect that his interests have been pulled in the direction of alternate history for quite a while now. And I’m OK with that. I think he’s a much better writer of alternate history than of epic-length fantasy. It’s a genre that lets his expansive approach to plot and pacing shine through, as well as his cynicism and observations about history as a writing genre.
In some ways I’ve resigned myself to TV being the only way we get any more information about Westeros at this point. I hope we at least get Winds of Winter since I know he’s at least written part of it, but at this point I’m not betting on getting anything after that.