Sorry Game of Thrones fans, specifically those of us who wanted to see Arya Stark continue kicking ass and taking faces. The disappointment just keeps rolling in.
After we watched the littlest Stark sail away into the west in the Thrones finale Sunday night, viewers made it clear what they wanted: a spinoff showcasing her adventures. Now, though, an exec at HBO has officially squashed that dream. As if killing our hopes of a proper final season wasn’t enough, right?
In an interview with THR, Programming President Casey Bloys was asked if he’d consider giving longtime fans what they wanted, instead of a rushed sorry excuse of a final season and episode. Or, in the interviewer’s actual words: “Have you considered exploring sequels? Specifically, Arya Stark as she travels west of Westeros?”
“Nope, nope, nope. No,” said Bloys.
He then goes on to explain his extremely unclear response, saying:
“Part of it is, I do want this show — this Game of Thrones, Dan and David’s show — to be its own thing. I don’t want to take characters from this world that they did beautifully and put them off into another world with someone else creating it. I want to let it be the artistic piece they’ve got. That’s one of reasons why I’m not trying to do the same show over.”
With that reasoning, you can somewhat respect his decision. Just a little. But if you go to Change.org and search for “Arya,” you do get 130 results. Remember the original petition to remake season 8? It’s less than 70,000 signatures away from its goal of 1.5 million. That’s something that should at least make the network executives blink, right? Even Emilia Clarke and Sophie Turner, Daenerys and Sansa on the show, have expressed their not so rosy feelings about the petition.
The desire to leave the current characters be and explore the time before the rule of the Starks, Lannisters and Starks again is understandable. But three prequels? Come on, man! They can surely give us one sequel, right?
Well, apparently not, as Bloys ends his answer with more logic that some diehard fans may or may not agree with:
“George has massive, massive world; there are so many ways in. That’s why we’re trying to do things that feel distinct — and to not try and re-do the same show. That’s probably one of the reasons why, right now, a sequel or picking up any of the other characters doesn’t make sense for us.”
The first Game of Thrones prequel is set to begin filming this June and though we don’t have many details on it just yet, you can expect that to change pretty soon. As always, watch this space for more.
