Game of Thrones prequel projects

HBO is developing multiple prequel projects to follow the main Game of Thrones TV series.

As of June 2018, four different pitch ideas are being considered, by four separate potential showrunners. David Benioff and D.B. Weiss will not return to write for subsequent projects. George R.R. Martin has seen the pitch ideas and will personally be a co-producer on two of them.

Martin has insisted that these upcoming projects be called "successor shows" or prequel projects, but not "spinoffs" - feeling that "spinoff" implies a deeper connection to the Game of Thrones TV series, but any potential ideas they are considering take place generations or centuries before the main TV series, and would not feature living characters or returning actors. Martin has also confirmed that they are not considering any sequels set after the main Game of Thrones TV series.

Origins
On May 4th, 2017, HBO announced it had ordered pitch scripts for five separate Game of Thrones prequel projects. While the identity of each prequel was not revealed, the five potential showrunners were announced as:


 * Jane Goldman
 * Carly Wray
 * Brian Helgeland
 * Max Borenstein
 * Bryan Cogman

David Benioff and D.B. Weiss do not intend to be involved in the prequel projects, though they technically remain attached as executive producers due to owning the production rights.

George R.R. Martin subsequently made an extensive post on his personal blog about the announcement. Martin confirmed that while at the time, HBO announced only four prequel pitches, a fifth had also just been presented, but for some reason wasn't included in HBO's announcement. It was only confirmed four months later, on September 20th, that the fifth prequel pitch was being developed by Bryan Cogman.

Martin explained in his blog that he first discussed making prequel series with HBO in August 2016 (after Season 6 of the main series finished airing). At the time, he pitched two prequel ideas: one of these continued as one of the announced set of five ideas (it is unclear which one), while the other idea was rejected and never made it that far.

The only clue Martin gave in 2017 about the identities of the five prequel pitch ideas was that one of them was not "set in Westeros" - though whether he meant it didn't take place in Westeros at all, or had parallel storylines in Westeros and Essos, is unclear (i.e. Daenerys Targaryen's storyline in Season 1 isn't "in Westeros" but that season does not exclude Westeros, with other characters). Martin also gave two other brief pieces of information, confirming that none of the ideas being pitched is a sequel to the main series (considering that the main novels aren't even finished yet) but prequels, and will not include any living characters from the main series. Moreover, he officially ruled out a few prequel ideas (see section below). As Martin said:


 * "Every one of the concepts under discussion is a prequel, rather than a sequel. Some may not even be set on Westeros. Rather than 'spinoff' or 'prequel,' however, I prefer the term 'successor show.' That's what I've been calling them."

Jane Goldman and Carly Wray's projects both have George R.R. Martin himself attached as a co-producer, though he has had ongoing story discussions with every showrunner:


 * "It was stated in some of the reports that I am working with two of the four writers. That's not quite right. I've actually been working with all four of the writers. Every one of the four has visited me here in Santa Fe, some of them more than once, and we've spent days together discussing their ideas, the history of Westeros and the world beyond, and sundry details found only in The World of Ice & Fire and The Lands of Ice & Fire...They are all amazing talents, and I am excited to be working with them. In between visits, I've been in touch with them by phone, text, and email, and I expect there will be a lot more back-and-forth as we move forward."

HBO executives have said that, due to the massive logistics involved, only one of these projects will be produced as a full TV series at any one time. HBO representatives have repeatedly stated that they don't intend for the first prequel to air immediately after the Game of Thrones series finale (in the sense that it won't premiere the same night as the series finale, a promotional style other franchises have followed in the past). Martin believes that HBO is aiming for the first one to premiere in 2020, one year after the Game of Thrones series finale.

It is unknown if all five pitch ideas are even meant to be full "TV series" lasting in the range of 4-5 TV seasons, or take the form of a one-shot miniseries, a high-budget TV movie, etc. If one of them is a one-shot special, not a full TV series, it's possible that it might go into production alongside one selected as the main "ongoing full TV series" - depending on its scale and format but nothing is established yet.

Pilot orders
On June 8th, 2018, HBO announced that it has ordered a live-action pilot episode for Jane Goldman's prequel pitch, and revealed its identity: it will be about the Age of Heroes and the Long Night that occurred during it, when the White Walkers first appeared and nearly destroyed the world.

On June 11th, 2018, George R.R. Martin made a post on his personal blog to congratulate Goldman, and give an update on the current status of the prequels:


 * As Martin had implied in an earlier blog post, one of the five pitch ideas has been rejected (though he didn't identify which one).
 * It is unknown why Cogman's pitch was announced later than the other four in 2017 - it is unclear if this indicates that HBO wasn't as confident in it, which would imply that it was the idea which was dropped. It is equally possible, however, that one of the other four pitches is the one that was dropped (Cogman's pitch may have taken four months to confirm simply due to background contract and scheduling negotiations).
 * Goldman's project has been ordered to pilot, but this is no guarantee that it will be a full series pickup (considering that even the original Pilot episode for Game of Thrones itself was rejected, and the project nearly cancelled afterwards).
 * The three remaining prequel pitches are still in active development. Goldman's pilot has by no means been settled upon as the finalist.  HBO has given Martin the impression that at least one, and possibly all three, of the remaining pitches will actually get orders for pilot episodes of their own.  HBO will then apparently choose which idea to order a full series for based on the strength of these two-to-four pilots.

The Long Night
On June 8, 2018, HBO put out a press release that it had ordered a pilot episode for the prequel pitch by Jane Goldman - with George R.R. Martin attached as a co-producer. It provided this short description for the prequel:
 * "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’ 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."

The White Walkers first attacked during the Long Night, which occurred some 8,000 years before the War of the Five Kings and narrative of the main series, during a historical epoch known as the Age of Heroes.

On June 11th, 2018, George R.R. Martin commented on the announcement in his personal blog. He said that he personally thinks this prequel should be titled "The Long Night", but he doesn't have final say - and he suspects HBO will probably put the words "Game of Thrones" in it too so audiences know it's a related project ("Game of Thrones: The Long Night", "The Long Night- A Game of Thrones Story", etc.).

Officially ruled-out prequels
Of the five prequel projects being considered by 2018, Martin did rule out certain prequel ideas which are definitely not among them:


 * Robert's Rebellion - Martin confirmed this is not among the five pitch ideas, and he reiterated that he never wants it to be adapted as a live-action prequel. Even before the Game of Thrones TV series, Martin has consistently said that he never wants to even write a prequel novella detailing Robert's Rebellion through active POV narration. Robert's Rebellion is a framing device for the main A Song of Ice and Fire series, and as the novels progress, more and more of its events are revealed through flashback - to the point that Martin feels he will have revealed everything about it by the time the main novels end (moreover, Robert's Rebellion only lasted one year in-universe, and probably could not sustain a TV show lasting multiple seasons - at most, a miniseries or TV movie, but Martin doesn't want it adapted at all).
 * The Tales of Dunk and Egg - Martin stated that this is not among the five pitches, and while he does want to see it have a live-action adaptation at some point, he only wants to do so after the prequel novella series is finished. The main Game of Thrones TV series went into production before the main novel series was finished, leading to numerous complications. In turn, he has also said he won't finish the Tales of Dunk and Egg until the main novel series is finished. So far, this prequel series consists of three novellas, out of a planned ten to twelve. In Martin's own words: "We're not doing Dunk & Egg...I don't want to repeat what happened with Game of Thrones itself, where the show gets ahead of the books. 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.
 * The reign of Aegon the Unworthy - Since the late 1990's, Martin has actually said that he might enjoy writing a prequel novel about the reign of Aegon IV Targaryen - infamously the worst king in the history of Westeros. Tonally, he described the story as somewhat in the style of Blackadder or Flashman, with a villain protagonist who cheats his way to power. Nonetheless, Martin mentioned in comments on his blog that Aegon the Unworthy is not one of the five prequel pitches currently being considered.

Potential identities of the prequel pitches
There are several distinct prequel eras in the backstory of the main A Song of Ice and Fire novels - many of which were further rounded out by The World of Ice and Fire sourcebook released in 2014. While writing the World book, Martin developed far more material for these prequel eras than could be published in it. He later released sample chapters from his notes as prequel novellas: The Princess and the Queen (2013), The Rogue Prince (2014), and The Sons of the Dragon (2017). Martin later decided to collect all of his currently existing but unpublished notes together into another sourcebook, Fire & Blood (2018), which focuses on the first half of the reign of the 300 year reign of the Targaryen dynasty. Fire & Blood will incorporate and expand upon the previously released sample novellas.

It is possible that HBO is considering pitches for these previously established, distinct prequel eras, given that Martin already developed a considerable amount of material for them. On the other hand, the first prequel pitch that HBO ordered a pilot for was The Long Night - which has no prequel novellas associated with it, and hardly any information at all, as it was a legendary event thousands of years before the main novels which is shrouded in myth.

The Game of Thrones TV series has actually "adapted" some of these prequel novellas in some form before, for the animated Histories & Lore Blu-ray featurette series. For Season 5, HBO made the unprecedented step of putting out a special super-sized 20 minute animated special on the Dance of the Dragons, and then for Season 7, released a 40 minute animated special on the Targaryen Conquest, "Conquest & Rebellion". These may well have been attempts to seed interest among casual viewers of the main TV series in these two major prequel eras - HBO even gave these animated featurettes special screenings in select major cities.

In late July 2017, Elio Garcia and Linda Antonsson, who run the major book fansite Westeros.org, made a set of videos speculating on the identity of the five prequel pitches. They co-wrote The World of Ice & Fire with Martin and have had a close relationship with him for years, and based their speculation on what prequel ideas could plausibly sustain a TV series, while taking into account that HBO will probably want them to be topics that casual viewers of Game of Thrones would be able to recognize. They believe that the most likely prequel pitches HBO would be interested in are the Targaryen Conquest and the Dance of the Dragons.

Going through the Timeline of major events in the history of Westeros and the lands beyond it, Elio & Linda gave this assessment for which prequel eras exist, and which could plausibly be adapted as a TV series:


 * The Long Night - When the White Walkers first attacked 8,000 years ago, and the Wall was built.
 * Elio & Linda actually didn't think this could easily be televised, because Martin never gave an extensive narrative about it. While "fighting the White Walkers" is a fairly linear narrative, other parts of the Age of Heroes are more episodic and difficult to combine (unless in an anthology format).  On the other hand, casual viewers of the TV series would recognize it - as it turned out, this was the first prequel pilot ordered into production (to the surprise of Elio & Linda).  The only hint that Jane Goldman gave about her prequel beforehand was that it was a name that people who only watched the TV series would still be able to recognize.
 * The Andal Invasion - When the second large human ethnic group migrated to Westeros 6,000 years ago - the Andals, conquering and merging with the First Men. They brought with them the Faith of the Seven and traditions of Knighthood.
 * Elio & Linda were dismissive about adapting this as anything but a series of anthology stories, as it is even less connected and with some stories taking place centuries apart. The Andal invasions have also been mentioned less prominently in the main TV series than the Long Night, so a casual audience wouldn't be as attracted to them.  They did not seriously think HBO is considering this.
 * The Targaryen Conquest - Taking place 300 years before the main TV series, when House Targaryen conquered and unified the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros for the first time in history, due to possessing the last three living Dragons in the world. Centering around Aegon I Targaryen, and his sister-queens Visenya and Rhaenys, showing them conquer Westeros, forge the Iron Throne, and build King's Landing.
 * Elio & Linda very firmly considered this to be one of the prequel pitches HBO ordered, possibly the most certain of all. It strongly matches all of the criteria:  Martin actually did write prequel novellas about this era so there is pre-established narrative to "adapt"; casual viewers of the main TV series would be able to recognize it because it has been mentioned quite prominently throughout the run of the TV series - everyone is fighting over the Iron Throne that the Conquest-generation forged in the first place.  Aegon I, Rhaenys, and Visenya have all been mentioned by name in the live-action TV series itself (i.e. Arya and Tywin discuss each of them in Season 2, and how they burned Harrenhal).  The storyline would also be fairly linear:  diverse enough to be interesting, but not spread across multiple generations like the Andal Invasions, or a sprawling story on the scale of Game of Thrones spanning parallel storylines on multiple continents.
 * The Sons of the Dragon & the Faith Militant uprising - A Cain-and-Abel story of Aegon I's two sons who followed him on the throne: the weakling Aenys and the brutal tyrant Maegor the Cruel.  How Maegor warred against the Faith Militant to cement the rule of the new Targaryen dynasty, but then how Maegor's wanton brutality led to civil wars against him.  After Maegor died, Aenys's surviving son Jaehaerys ascended to the throne, beginning a golden age of peace that lasted 80 years.
 * Elio & Linda felt this was a good narrative, as Martin had written a prequel novella about it, but it has barely been mentioned in the main TV series - and much more importantly, it is too much of a direct sequel to the Targaryen Conquest to function as a stand-alone prequel. Maegor's mother Visenya is still alive throughout all of these events (still riding a dragon to war at 80 years old).  Elio & Linda concluded that this probably wasn't one of the five pitch ideas HBO ordered, but that the Targaryen Conquest pitch probably included notes that if that series extended into 4 to 6 seasons, it would keep going directly into the Sons of the Dragon era.  Indeed, the "Conquest & Rebellion" 40 minute animated featurette that HBO produced for the Season 7 Blu-ray set actually extends into the Sons of the Dragon era, including the First Dornish War and mentioning Maegor.
 * The Dance of the Dragons - a massive civil war fought within two rival branches of House Targaryen, one led by Rhaenyra Targaryen and the other by her half-brother Aegon II Targaryen - both the grandchildren of Jaehaerys (making them the grandchildren of Aegon I's grandchildren). The war occurred about 130 years after the initial Targaryen Conquest, and 170 years before the War of the Five Kings.    It was the most devastating war in the history of Westeros, as it was the only one before or since in which both sides had dragons.
 * Elio & Linda also very strongly felt that this would make a great prequel TV series, and must be one of the five pitches HBO ordered. They felt that it is tonally the most similar to the original Game of Thrones TV series, with the rivalry between Rhaenyra's faction and Aegon II's faction (the "Blacks" and the "Greens") mirroring the easy to follow Stark/Lannister rivalry from the War of the Five Kings (in contrast, the Conquest is actually about the Targaryens fighting seven different independent kingdoms).  Martin also wrote extensive prequel novellas about the Dance, with much more material than on the Conquest (the prequel novella on the Conquest was 10,000 words long, the unpublished notes on the Dance were 60,000 words long).  The original TV series also seemed to be attempting to promote the Dance to casual viewers, starting in Season 5 - not only with the 20 minute animated featurette that year, but when Shireen Baratheon gave a long tangent explaining she was reading a history book about the Dance and briefly summarizing what it was.
 * Challenges they felt a live-action Dance of the Dragons would face are its scope and budget. It isn't as widespread as the main A Song of Ice and Fire series, with Daenerys's storylines in the eastern continent, nor does it feature the Wall & the Night's Watch at all - though the Free Cities play a bit larger role (both sides hire mercenary armies from rival Free Cities, but they come to Westeros, instead of the narrative focusing there).  There are still more characters and sub-factions involved than in the Conquest, but no more than in the early seasons of the original TV series.
 * What Elio & Linda felt the main issue was is that there were twenty living dragons during this time period, and the CGI budget would be extensive. Elio still felt this was workable, pointing out that 1 - no more than three dragons actually appear in a single battle at any given time (all 20 are never on screen at once), and 2 - the dragons would be the central focus of all the CGI budget, which in the original TV series was divided among other CGI creations such as the armies of zombies at the Wall, or the sweeping vistas of the pyramids in Meereen.  Any CGI budget that went to the Direwolves in the original series would also exclusively go to the dragons in this (and CGI dragons are much easier to work with than the fickle actor-wolves who portrayed the direwolves, who were then digitally re-sized in front of green screens).   Ultimately Elio & Linda felt that any of these issues were manageable if planned out well enough, and it remains a strong contender for a prequel adaptation.
 * The Regency of Aegon III - The Dance of the Dragons ended in exhaustion, and it took Westeros a full generation to recover. Much of the realm had been gutted by dragon-fire, degenerating into chaos as roving bands of former soldiers turned outlaw as a fierce and years-long winter set in, which brought a plague with it.  In many areas the fighting continued, particularly the private war between the ironborn and the surviving Lannisters.  Most of the Targaryens and their dragons were dead, leaving only Rhaenyra's underaged son to sit the throne.  The war had ended in a stalemate, so it was decided that instead of one regent, a regency council made up of seven people would rule for the boy-king, with members chosen from both sides.  The regents engaged in byzantine court politics, intrigues and assassinations, as each jockeyed for power amidst the ashes.
 * Elio & Linda actually felt this is a very interesting prequel era, and Martin is writing a prequel novella about it. Also, the scale isn't quite as large and expensive as a Dance TV series.  However, they dismissed that it is one of the five pitch ideas HBO ordered:  much like the Sons of the Dragon, it is a direct sequel to the Dance of the Dragons, and wouldn't really work if done out of order.  Even moreso than the Sons of the Dragon, characters during the Regency base their actions and allegiances on what they or their parents did during the Dance, and it would take too long to explain all of that backstory.  Also, the Regency hasn't been mentioned in the original TV series.  Thus, like the Sons of the Dragon, Elio & Linda feel that the most likely scenario is that if the Dance of the Dragons is greenlit as a TV series, the Regency storylines would be adapted as a direct sequel to that (i.e. either seasons 6 to 8 or so of a Dance TV series, or an outright sequel TV series to that, restarting with its own first season).
 * The "Blood of Dragons" era, Aegon III's sons & the Conquest of Dorne - a loosely-defined era when Aegon III's sons Daeron I the Young Dragon and Baelor the Blessed struggle with attempts to conquer still-independent Dorne and reform the Faith of the Seven]]. Through it all, Aegon III's younger brother Viserys II Targaryen is the real power behind the throne, serving as Hand of the King to both of his nephews and trying to rein in their political follies.
 * Elio & Linda greatly enjoy this time period, and have been running an online text-based RPG for years which is set during it. Still, they dismiss out of hand that it is one of the five pitches HBO could consider.  While logistically relatively easy to do, there isn't one core narrative so much as several overlapping subplots.  It has never been mentioned in the main TV series, and barely in the animated featurettes.  Moreover, the characters and their identities would take too long to explain without prior setup from a Regency TV series.  While it could be adapted in a future anthology, HBO would not possibly be considered in it as a pitch idea at this time.
 * The Reign of Aegon IV, the Unworthy - Viserys II's son takes the throne as Aegon IV, the most corrupt king in the history of Westeros. Gluttonous, petty, and lustful, having no less than nine official mistresses during his reign.
 * While Martin has always toyed with the idea of a prequel novella covering the intrigues of this era, he confirmed it is not one of the five pitch ideas HBO ordered.
 * The First Blackfyre Rebellion - Aegon IV stupidly legitimized all of his bastard children on his deathbed, including Daemon Blackfyre. Considered the best living swordsman in Westeros, he founded a rival cadet branch of House Targaryen known as House Blackfyre.  Meanwhile, Aegon IV's legitimate son Daeron II united Dorne with the Iron Throne through marriage-alliance with his new bride.  To win their favor and cement the alliance, Daeron II appointed multiple Dornishmen to high royal offices.  The Great Houses eventually split between a pro-Dornish faction around Daeron II, and an anti-Dornish faction around Daemon Blackfyre.