George RR Martin Is Allowed to See Cancelled GOT Spinoff Pilot

Not even renowned fantasy author George R.R. Martin is allowed to see the canceled $30 million Game of Thrones spinoff prequel series pilot. Game of Thrones spinoff prequel series pilot. Following the massive success of the fantasy-drama series, Martin sat down with HBO to discuss the possibility of creating various spinoff projects to capitalize on the Game of Thrones fame. However, one such series, Bloodmoon, did not fare well after its pilot was produced.


In June 2018, the pilot for the Game of Thrones spinoff series Bloodmoon was ordered by HBO. With X-Men: First Class writer Jane Goldman as its showrunner, S.J. Clarkson set to direct, and Naomi Watts starring, the pilot was greenlit with a $30 million price tag. Bloodmoon was set in the Age of Heroes, approximately 10,000 years before the events of Game of Thrones, and would have covered the creation of the most powerful houses of Westeros, the Long Night in which the White Walkers first ventured south, and the Andal Invasion. However, after viewing the pilot, HBO declined to move forward with the series.


Spinoffs Are All Prequels, Game of Thrones is getting multiple spinoffs that will expand the world of Ice and Fire, but none of the are direct continuations from the main show. HBO is planning multiple Game of Thrones spinoffs, but they're all set to be prequels rather than sequels, a decision that makes sense for the stories and the cable channel. Game of Thrones ended in 2019, bringing to a close one of the biggest TV shows of all time. Although the ending was certainly divisive, that didn't dent HBO's plans for more stories set in Westeros and the lands beyond. Even before the show was over, various spinoffs were in development, and those ideas have continued to grow.


First up will be House of the Dragon, a Targaryen centric prequel set nearly 200 years before Game of Thrones, chronicling the civil war known as The Dance of the Dragons. That is expected to release sometime in 2022, but it's only the beginning. While nothing else is officially happening, HBO reportedly has many more Game of Thrones spinoffs in the works, including an animated show based in the Empire of Yi Ti, an adaptation of George R.R. Martin's Tales of Dunk & Egg novellas, and a show following Corlys Velaryon's Great Voyages, coming after the character's introduction in House of the Dragon.


HBO's approach to Game of Thrones seems to be casting a fairly wide net - alongside those in development, a pilot for a show based around the Age of Heroes and the Long Night wasn't picked up, and another on Flea Bottom isn't moving forward. The stories range massively in terms of story, timeline, and geography, but the one consistent element is that they're all indirect prequels to Game of Thrones, not direct sequels. This is perhaps a somewhat surprising decision, given the popularity of the show, which for most IPs and franchises generally leads to continuations for established characters, or at least on events more closely linked to the main story. But for Game of Thrones it makes sense, not only because its ending was so divisive, but because it tied-up most of its character arcs.


Game of Thrones' characters ended up, there's little room for an obvious sequel or direct spinoff. The realm is relatively peaceful under King Bran, and it's hard to imagine a story built around his rule; Jon, Tyrion, and Sansa all had endings that didn't invite follow-ups, and the same can be said for popular secondary characters, such as Bronn. Perhaps the only possible spinoff setup was Arya searching for "what's West of Westeros," but that sort of voyage can be covered in other stories - indeed, HBO has 9 Voyages and 10,000 Ships in the works - that inevitably feel much fresher. HBO clearly isn't letting the response to Game of Thrones dictate things too much, given how many spinoffs it's green lighting, but that too suggests it's wise to look for new areas of exploration: people will come back to the world because it's so rich, but anything too close to the main story would be too soon.


The Game of Thrones prequel series Bloodmoon. Martin explained that Goldman did not have much to go on in regard to source material as the author had only written eight lines of text discussing the time period. He also detailed that the pilot dealt with "a much more primitive people" and contained no dragons, so the episode was focused on a wedding between members from Southern and Northern houses and the "history of the White Walkers."

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