The utterly chaotic state of Warner Bros. hasn’t just affected DC and its entertainment universe. In one of his blog posts, A Song of Ice and Fire and Game of Thrones creator George R.R. Martin confirmed that many of the GOT spinoff shows were being shelved by HBO due to the chaotic state of the company.
This really shouldn’t be too surprising for anyone keeping close tabs on the state of Warner Bros and all of their projects.
For years, Warner Bros. has been hemorrhaging cash as they have either produced god-forsakenly bad content/entertainment, become mired in controversy, or has bitten off more than it could chew and took on too much debt to pay for said mistakes.
Regardless, the end result has been catastrophic for a once great, proud, and independent movie studio as they were bought out by Discovery in a whopping $43B merger that saw the two companies form into the conglomerate Warner Bros. Discovery.
“That’s all nice and good, but how does this affect Game of Thrones and the spinoffs,” you are probably wondering right about now. Well, seeing how HBO was the studio that produced the show and HBO is owned by Warner Bros., all products and projects of HBO were put under review by new Warner Bros. Discovery executives David Zaslav, Jon Steinlauf, and Bruce Campbell.
And, in said review, the executives made the decision to not only axe a bunch of upcoming HBO and Warner Bros. projects (Batgirl, Scoob! Holiday Hunt, Bye Bye Bunny, The Amazing World of Gumball, J.J. Abrams’ Demimonde, Westworld, Raised By Wolves, Batman: Caped Crusader, etc.), but also to discontinue HBO Max itself in favor of combing the HBO Mx content into Discovery+.
Clearly, when extremely popular franchises like The Looney Tunes, DC, and The Amazing World of Gumball, hit television shows like Raised By Wolves and Westworld, well-known creators like J.J. Abrams, and even a streaming service itself is getting canned, nothing was off the table for the Warner Bros. Discovery purge. And Game of Thrones’ many spinoffs were no exception.
(HBO-House of the Dragon-Official Trailer)
It wasn’t made very clear what projects were canned in Martin’s blogpost, but it was abundantly clear that NONE of the rumored spinoff shows had even been greenlit, let alone ready for a release date. Plus, Martin did explicitly say that a few of the projects were shelved, though he naturally denied that they were cancelled completely. He wouldn’t be a great salesman of his work if he did that.
If I had to guess which ones were “shelved”, I’d have to guess the Flea Bottom series, The Golden Empire series, the 10,000 Ships series, and probably the Corlys Velayron series. The first three are just simply down to there not being enough in-world content for a showrunner to adapt for 3-5+ seasons that Warner Bros. Discovery can justify the costs of producing.
As for the Corlys Velayron series, I think it could work as Steve Toussiant is a charismatic actor and the Sea Snake is a great character, but it would have to be years away. I mean, how realistic is it to have Steve Toussiant spend 6-8 months of a year filming as one character on two different shows. It would not only be quite the burden for an independent actor’s career but would also take away from the main show (House of the Dragon) he’s on.
So, as long as Corlys is done well for the remaining time House of the Dragon is on air, then maybe we’ll see a Corlys Velayron spinoff show.
Therefore, for anyone who has been keeping count, I think the two shows that might get greenlit are the Jon Snow sequel series and the Dunk and Egg prequel show. As for the latter, there is already three novellas worth of material for a showrunner to adapt into a season or two, giving Martin enough time to write another 1-2 novellas in the meantime to bolster the lore surrounding King Aegon VI (Egg) and Lord Commander Duncan the Tall (Dunk).
Plus, the Blackfyre Rebellion era is one of the most fascinating and intriguing periods in Westerosi history. It would be a real shame if it was never adapted to the small or big screen.
Now, as for the Jon Snow series, I’m praying to The Seven, The Drowned God, The Lord of Light, and The Others that this show is shelved and forgotten about. I can’t think of a more damaging idea to the reputation of the ASOIAF universe than to bring back Jon Snow and all of the Season 8 characters that nearly destroyed the franchises for a misguided, tetherless sequel series Beyond the Wall.
(HBO-Game of Thrones-Season 2 Recap Trailer)
If you are at least a reserved, casual fan of Game of Thrones/House of the Dragon, you know very well why bringing back the memoires of that dreadful season is a bad idea. But, I fear the pull of Kit Harrington and his former GOT crew/cast members might convince the heads of Warner Bros. Discovery to make this abomination of an idea into a show.
Nonetheless, we’ll see what (if any) GOT prequel gets greenlit into a full-fledge spinoff show as we await Season 2 of House of the Dragon and the turmoil of Warner Bros. to cool down.
Images Source: Featured Image: (HBO) (Game of Thrones | Official Season 2 Recap Trailer (HBO) – YouTube)
In Text Image 1: (HBO) (House of the Dragon | Official Trailer | HBO Max – YouTube)
In Text Image 2: (HBO) (Game of Thrones | Official Season 2 Recap Trailer (HBO) – YouTube)
