HBO has given its first pilot order to one of the severalGame of Thronesspinoffs in development. Last year, with the final season ofGame of Throneslooming, HBO revealed that it had tasked several writers with developing potentialGame of Thronesspinoff series that could fill the void left by the pay cable network’s biggest show ever. One of those was spearheaded byJane Goldman, the writer and producer behind films likeX-Men: First ClassandStardust, and that’s the one getting the pilot order here.
The logline for the untitledGame of Thronesprequel is as follows:
“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.”
This new show will take place thousands of years before the events ofGame of Thrones, so don’t expect many (if any) actors or characters from that series to pop up.
Goldman andA Song of Ice and FireauthorGeorge R.R. Martinwrote the story for the pilot, and Goldman wrote the teleplay. She will executive produce and serve as showrunner on the series, which boasts Martin as executive producer alongsideVince Gerardis(Game of Thrones) andDaniel Zelman(Bloodline). HBO continues to develop otherGame of Thronesspinoffs with writersCarly Wray(Mad Men,Westworld),Brian Helgeland(Mystic River), andMax Borenstein(Kong: Skull Island) but there’s no guarantee we’ll see all of them go to pilot. Indeed, HBO’s president wouldn’t even guaranteeanyof them would go to series, but it’d be mighty shocking if this Goldman pilot doesn’t get picked up.
So if the pilot now has an order, it’s conceivable that thisGame of Thronesprequel series could be ready to air in 2020, as HBO’s president previously said a spinoff wouldn’t be on HBO’s airwaves until at least a year after theThronesseries finale in order to give the show a proper sendoff.
This is one of two high-profile pilots in development at HBO, asDamon Lindelofis currently in production on the pilot for hisWatchmenseries that may or may not get picked up. Clearly HBO is planning for aThrones-less future, and so far they’ve got some mighty exciting stuff in the works.
