'Game of Thrones' Spinoff News & Updates: HBO CEO Shares Excitement About Successor Shows
HBO hit the jackpot with "Game of Thrones" and now that the show is coming to a close, the network has been looking into its successor. HBO CEO Richard Plepler revealed his excitement on what he knows about the spinoff projects so far.
Speaking at the MipCom, Plepler confirmed that he already read some of the treatments for the "Game of Thrones" spinoff shows. The network commissioned five separate writing teams at the beginning of the year that will work on coming up with a show to potentially become the next big hit after "Game of Thrones."
"It's a fantastic group of writers and talent, most of whom have lived inside the Thrones eco-system so are very, very familiar with its intricacies," Plepler said. "We are looking some things, I have read a couple of early bibles and I'm excited about what I've seen."
HBO, however, won't be greenlighting all five shows in development, only one will proceed as a full series but that decision might change in the next months. To be clear, the writers are working on a prequel to "Game of Thrones," which means none of the more familiar characters will be in any of the shows.
Not much has been detailed about what the stories cover but George R.R. Martin, the creator of "Game of Thrones," confirmed that it won't touch on his other books like "Robert Rebellion" or his "Dunk & Egg" series. Some speculate that one of the prequels could be about the history of the Targaryens from 300 years before the events of "Game of Thrones."
Executive producers David Benioff and D.B. Weiss won't be involved in these future projects. Bryan Cogman, a longtime writer for the series, is working on one prequel while the other writers are Max Borenstein, Jane Goldman, Brian Helgeland and Carly Wray.
Once HBO picks the successor show, however, it won't be on the air until 2020.