Somewhere deep within HBO towers, plans are afoot for a Game of Thrones prequel series – but not just any prequel series, one which takes place a full 10,000 years before A Song of Ice and Fire.
Said to be working under the codename ‘Blood Moon,’ HBO’s prehistoric spinoff has already amassed a fantastic ensemble cast, which boasts Naomi Watts (an old-timey Lannister, perhaps?), Josh Whitehouse, Naomi Ackie, Denise Gough, Jamie Campbell Bower, Sheila Atim, Ivanno Jeremiah, Georgie Henley, Alex Sharp, and Toby Regbo.
And with filming already underway across parts of Belfast and Northern Ireland, it’s becoming increasingly clear that HBO is hoping to fast-track this Thrones prequel series for a late 2020/early 2021 premiere. There’s just one issue: it likely won’t enjoy the same levels of success as its predecessor. Or so says George R.R. Martin himself, who knows a thing or two about the mystical worlds of Westeros and Essos.
The scale of Game of Thrones success has — reaching all over the world and invading the culture to [such an extent] — it’s not something anyone could ever anticipate, not something I expect to ever experience again.
Martin later addressed the vitriol that threatened to engulf Game of Thrones season 8 – particularly the last two episodes – and conceded that the Internet empowers those at the extreme end of fandom.
The Internet is toxic in a way that old fanzine culture and fandoms — comics fans, science fiction fans — in those days, was not. There were disagreements. There were feuds, but nothing like the madness that you see on the internet.
Though he wasn’t actively involved in the creation of Game of Thrones‘ grand finale, GRRM has been busy penning his final two installments in the literary Song of Ice and Fire saga – namely Winds of Winter and A Dream of Spring – with the first tentatively pegged for a release in 2020… we hope.