With Game of Thrones over and an a prequel on the way, HBO has been considering a variety of additional projects to continue to expand the world of Westeros. According to Deadline, the network has three additional projects that it’s developing based on the works and world of George R.R. Martin: 9 Voyages / Sea Snake, Flea Bottom, and 10,000 Ships.
Presently, HBO’s focusing on House of the Dragon, a prequel series set a couple of hundred years prior to the events of Game of Thrones, based on author George R.R. Martin’s Westeros “history” Fire & Blood, chronicling the Targaryen civil war. While HBO hasn’t said when it’ll debut (sometime in 2022, it seems), it has been steadily casting various roles for it, and seems to be prepped for production.
Prior to that, HBO had a handful of concepts in the works, and had filmed a pilot set ten of thousand years prior to the events of GOT. That project was ultimately axed, along with those other potential projects.
But in recent months, HBO has been hard at work developing a suite of other shows: an adaptation of Martin’s Dunk & Egg stories, as well as an animated series. At the time, reports indicated that those weren’t the only projects in the works.
Now, Deadline has highlighted a trio of projects which could add vastly to HBO’s growing franchise.
9 Voyages / Sea Snake will apparently be about Corlys Velaryon, the head of House Velaryon and husband to Princess Rhaenys Targaryen, who made a series of nine great voyages to all parts of Westeros. This story was also part of Martin’s Fire & Ice book, and it seems as though there could be a tie-in with House of the Dragon, given that he took part in the Dance of the Dragons.
Flea Bottom refers to a slum in King’s Landing that we saw in Game of Thrones, which could include any number of options, while 10,000 Ships would reportedly be about Princess Nymeria and a journey that she made with the Rhoynars after their defeat in Valyria from Essos to Dorne, and would be set around a thousand years prior to the events of Game of Thrones.
Each of these projects appear to be in fairly early development, of which, Sea Snake seems to be “more fully formed,” while the other two are just in the idea stage without writers. All or none of them could be made (as we’ve seen, HBO has fielded and developed a number of ideas), but it does show that the network is serious about expanding the world as it works to grow its streaming service, HBO Max. Westeros is a big place, and it’s clear that they’re planning to mine it for plenty of more stories for years to come.
Here’s an idea. Maybe just…. don’t?
Nine Voyages will probably happen – at least a pilot order – because Bruno Heller is involved, and HBO have wanted to re-team with Heller for many years. HBO know they messed up on Heller’s Rome and this is a good way of working with him again, although I must admit I’d be much more excited if he was working on a Rome reboot or a next-generation story (handily, the sets are still standing in Italy).
10,000 Ships could be cool. It’d be Fantasy Battlestar Galactica! An entire people go on the run in a ragtag, fugitive fleet after their home is burned to the ground. Fleeing pursuit, they find various strange planets islands and eventually find succor in a rumoured, distant land.
Flea Bottom doesn’t sound very well-developed at the moment, although it reminds me of the collegium scenes in Rome, where “respectable businessmen” – who are really state-approved criminals – keep the peace on the streets for the nobility in return for getting a cut of the shady deals that go down on their watch. A show about the seedy underbelly of King’s Landing could be interesting but I’m not sure what narrative purpose it would serve. Maybe if we knew the timeframe it could be more interesting.
@@@@@#1 While I sympathize, the quest of all of the streaming services for that next cash cow franchise means that yours is a forlorn hope.
Dunk & Egg would be interesting, since it takes place not so very long before A Song of Ice and Fire, on which Game of Thrones is based, to the extent that a small number of characters in the former survive into the beginning of the latter.
Flea Bottom seems like it would be an opportunity for stories that are more episodic as opposed to part of a larger story arc.
@1. Agreed totally. It’s Star Trek and Star Wars. They are milking the cash cow because they can and it’s less risky than investing in originality.
If there is to be a WORLD OF ICE AND FIRE-set animated series, one can only hope it goes with a visual style based on those lovely illuminated manuscripts of old – all the better for the various cruelties & outright brutalities of the setting to come with a shock, rather than a shrug – rather than the usual ‘I can’t believe this isn’t a computer game’ CGI (often beautiful, but at this point a little overused): I’m thinking something like the approach of THE SECRET OF KELLS.
Of the series above, the NINE VOYAGES/SEA SNAKE series sounds the most interesting – allowing us a look at the broader world, but allowing us a Westerosi baseline to help make the transition more smooth (also, it has to be said that the world needs more swashbuckling adventure and less gloomy survival at any price narratives).