A guide to all the confirmed 'Game of Thrones' spinoffs, prequels, and sequels in development at HBO

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A guide to all the confirmed 'Game of Thrones' spinoffs, prequels, and sequels in development at HBO
Emilia Clarke and Harry Lloyd as Daenerys and Viserys Targaryen on "Game of Thrones."Helen Sloan/HBO
  • Following on from "House of the Dragon," there are lots more "Game of Thrones" spinoffs in the works.
  • But none of the five being considered and developed at HBO have release dates just yet.
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HBO has long planned to create a "Game of Thrones" television universe, giving fans of the global fantasy phenomenon more stories based on author George R.R. Martin's various book series that take place in Westeros and beyond.

And with the success of the first season of "House of the Dragon," it appears that the network is keen to continue to mine the world George R.R. Martin created with more spinoffs, sequels, and prequels.

Some of the series in development (which Martin prefers to call "successor shows") are based on existing stories that the fantasy author has written, while others would feature characters and locales he has created in brand new stories.

So here's everything we know about all the "Game of Thrones"-related projects that are in development, are rumored to be in development, or returning.

Kim Renfro contributed reporting to a previous version of this article.

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1. "A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms: The Hedge Knight"

A guide to all the confirmed 'Game of Thrones' spinoffs, prequels, and sequels in development at HBO
"A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms: The Hedge Knight" is in development.HBO

HBO announced in April 2023 that the tentatively titled "A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms: The Hedge Night," based on Martin's "Dunk & Egg" stories, was officially moving ahead.

The show — which the author told Entertainment Weekly in 2016 would be the "most natural follow-up" to the much-loved fantasy series — has been given a straight-to-series order.

The show will take place almost a century before the events of "Game of Thrones" and focuses on the future Lord Commander of the Kingsguard, Ser Duncan the Tall, and his diminutive squire, the future King Aegon V Targaryen.

The pair's adventures — which appear across three novellas in the book "A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms" — are known fondly by fans as the 'Dunk and Egg stories', but Martin explained in a blog entry why he and HBO had opted for a different title for the adaptation.

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"There are millions of people out there who do not know the stories and the title needs to intrigue them too," he wrote. "If you don't know the characters, Dunk & Egg sounds like a sitcom. Laverne & Shirley. Abbott & Costello. Beavis & Butthead. So, no. We want 'knight' in the title. Knighthood and chivalry are central to the themes of these stories."

He added that "A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms: The Hedge Night" was a working title, and may be changed before the series lands on screens. Martin speculated that the first season of the series will "most likely" consist of six episodes "though that is not set in stone."

The greenlight for the series may have come as something of a surprise to fans as Martin shared on his blog in 2017 that despite his initial enthusiasm for a "Dunk and Egg" show, he was putting the idea on a backburner since he was not yet done writing for the characters.

He wrote at the time: "Eventually, sure, I'd love that, and so would many of you. But I've only written and published three novellas to date and there are at least seven or eight or ten more I want to write."

"We all know how slow I am and how fast a television show can move. I don't want to repeat what happened with GAME OF THRONES itself, where the show gets ahead of the books," he continued. "When the day comes that I've finished telling all my tales of Dunk & Egg, then we'll do a TV show about them, but that day is still a long ways off."

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Martin was of course referencing the way that HBO's "Game of Thrones" wound up overtaking his published books in the "A Song of Ice and Fire" series, resulting in a divisive final season that may significantly deviate from Martin's planned (and still unwritten) book ending.

Per HBO, Martin will serve as an executive producer on the series alongside, Ira Parker, Ryan Condal, and Vince Gerardis.

2. The Jon Snow spinoff, "Snow"

A guide to all the confirmed 'Game of Thrones' spinoffs, prequels, and sequels in development at HBO
Kit Harington as Jon Snow in "Game of Thrones."HBO

"Snow," which is set to explore what happened to fan favorite Jon Snow (Kit Harington) after the events of "Game of Thrones," is the only spinoff in development that is not based on pre-existing material by Martin.

Per The Hollywood Reporter, who broke the news in June 2022, Harington is attached to reprise his role if the series moves forward.

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Writing on his blog, Martin confirmed the news and said that he was involved in the series, but revealed that the idea for the show had actually come from Harington himself.

He explained that Harington "brought the idea to us" and had assembled a "terrific" group of writers and showrunners, although he declined to share their names just yet.

As audiences will remember, in the eighth and final season of "Game of Thrones," Jon discovered that he was not in fact the bastard son of Eddard "Ned" Stark (Sean Bean), but a potential heir to the Iron Throne as the secret child of Ned's sister Lyanna Stark and Rhaegar Targaryen.

He also found himself exiled beyond the Wall to live out his days with the Free Folk after committing regicide by killing the crazed Daenerys Targaryen (Emilia Clarke).

According to Entertainment Weekly, speaking during a panel at a "Game of Thrones" convention in 2020, Harington himself said of Jon's future: "The fact he goes to the Wall is the greatest gift and also the greatest curse."

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He continued: "He's gotta go back up to the place with all this history and live out his life thinking about how he killed Dany, and live out his life thinking about Ygritte dying in his arms, and live out his life thinking about how he hung Olly, and live out his life thinking about all of this trauma, and that, that's interesting."

"So I think where we leave him at the end of the show, there's always this feeling of like… I think we wanted some kind of little smile that things are okay. He's not okay."

3. "Nine Voyages"

A guide to all the confirmed 'Game of Thrones' spinoffs, prequels, and sequels in development at HBO
Steve Toussaint as Corlys Velaryon in "House of the Dragon."HBO

Deadline was the first to report in early 2021 that a spinoff series about the adventures of Corlys Velaryon, also known as "The Sea Snake," was being developed at HBO with a script from "The Mentalist" creator Bruno Heller and support from Martin himself.

Although an older version of the character was introduced in the first season of "House of the Dragon," (played by Steve Toussaint), it's expected he will be recast for the stand-alone series, as it follows a much younger version of the character on his sea-faring journeys to Pentos, Dragonstone and around the bottom of Westeros.

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However, speaking to Entertainment Weekly in 2022, Toussaint said he would love to be involved, even if it's just for a brief scene."

"If I'm lucky, I might say to them, 'Let me just be at the beginning [of the show] sitting with a book saying, 'Let me talk about my life,'" he said. "That'll be me petitioning."

However, at the end of 2023, Martin announced that "Nine Voyages" would be moving from live-action to animation, and explained why.

In a blog entry on December 31, he wrote: "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," he added.

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4. "10,000 Ships"

At the same time that Deadline dropped the news about "Nine Voyages," it was also announced that another spinoff series titled "10,000 Ships" was being considered at HBO too, alongside another project, "Flea Bottom," which would be set in the poorest slum district in King's Landing.

While "Flea Bottom" has since been shelved, it appears that "10,000 Ships" is still going ahead.

While there hasn't been an update about the series for quite some time, a year later in the summer of 2022, Martin appeared to confirm that "10,000 Ships" was still going ahead. In an interview with The New York Times, he stated that the series is set "like a thousand years before" the flagship series and described it as "an 'Odyssey'-like epic."

If it goes ahead, the series will tell the story of warrior queen Princess Nymeria (the namesake of Arya Stark's direwolf) and the surviving Rhoynars who traveled from Essos to Dorne following their defeat by Valyrian and their dragons.

5. "The Golden Empire"

"The Golden Empire" is the working title for the animated series about Yi-Ti, Martin's own fantasy version of Imperial China, which has only been briefly mentioned in the "A Song of Ice and Fire" books.

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Like "Nine Voyages," the series will be animated, and according to the author, the early concept art and script for the series are shaping up quite nicely — but caveated that it could potentially be shelved.

Writing on his blog in March 2022, Martin stated that they had "a great young writer" working on the show and described the art and animation he had seen as "beautiful."

In the same 2022 New York Times interview where he spoke about "10,000 Ships," Martin shared more. "We got a terrific script on that," he said of "The Golden Empire."

However, he added: "Obviously, not all these shows we're developing are going to make it to air, but I hope that several of them do."

6. "House of the Dragon" season two

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A guide to all the confirmed 'Game of Thrones' spinoffs, prequels, and sequels in development at HBO
Emma D’Arcy as Rhaenyra Targaryen in "House of the Dragon."HBO

"House of the Dragon" was the first "Game of Thrones" spinoff series to air, after an untitled prequel series starring Naomi Watts, co-written by Jane Goldman and directed by S.J. Clarkson, was dropped in 2019.

Its first season hit screens in 2022 and was a huge success. Its premiere episode broke viewership records at HBO and it went on to earn eight Emmy nominations.

Unsurprisingly, a second season was quickly confirmed by the network and a teaser trailer for the new episodes was released in December 2023, confirming that the new season would land on screens in "Summer 2024."

In a December 2023 blog entry, Martin stated that while visiting the set of "House of the Dragon" season two, he had discussed the third and fourth seasons of the show with showrunner Ryan Condal and the writing staff. So presumably, "House of the Dragon" won't be ending anytime soon.

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