How HBO's Game Of Thrones Spin-off Shows Are Shaping Up

Season 8 of Game of Thrones wraps up in less than two weeks, but that will not mark the end of the franchise's presence on television. Thanks to author George R.R. Martin, we've got an idea of how things are going several of the "successor" TV shows that could come to HBO once this final season wraps up. In a post on his blog, the "A Song of Ice and Fire" novel series author, on which Game of Thrones is based, said three of the five shows are moving still moving forward. They're coming along "nicely," he said. As for the other two, their status is uncertain.

This news comes not long after Game of Thrones director and producer Bryan Cogman said his Game of Thrones successor show was canceled. One of the shows, which Martin originally wrote on his blog was called The Long Night (he later walked that back, so the name could change), stars Naomi Watts and will start shooting this year.

That show is set thousands of years before the mainline HBO show and concerns legendary characters like Bran the Builder, founder of House Stark, and Lann the Clever, founder of House Lannister. The title Martin mentioned, the Long Night, refers to a winter that lasted a generation--which also included the first war with the White Walkers.

The other two shows are still working on scripts, but there is no word yet on the stories they'll tell or who may star in them. Martin teased that at least one might concern the Targaryen dynasty, which is covered in the recently released companion book, "Fire & Blood."

"We have had five different Game of Thrones successor shows in development (I mislike the term 'spinoffs') at HBO, and three of them are still moving forward nicely," he said. "The one I am not supposed to call The Long Night will be shooting later this year, and two other shows remain in the script stage, but are edging closer. What are they about? I cannot say. But maybe some of you should pick up a copy of Fire & Blood and come up with your own theories."

There are a bunch of major events in the 300-year history of the Targaryens in Westeros that could make for good shows. Aegon Targaryen's original conquest of the Seven Kingdoms would be pretty intense, but there's also the Dance of Dragons, when a Targaryen prince battled a princess over who would succeed their father on the Iron Throne, and the Blackfyre Rebellion, when a bunch of legitimized Targaryen bastards banded together to overthrow the trueborn Targaryens.

HBO has only ordered a pilot for the Naomi Watts Game of Thrones successor show, so it remains to be seen if it will get picked up to series.

As for the mainline Game of Thrones show, Episode 4 of its six-episode final season aired on May 5. Episode 5 premieres next week, and if the teaser trailer is anything to go on, it's going to be a dramatic affair. Episode 6 will wrap up the series overall, and we have some theories on how things could unfold in the last two episodes.

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