Take the Black Live: Game of Thrones Follow-Up Faceoff

Welcome to another episode of Take the Black, the show where myself and Culturess editor Cheryl Wassenaar blather about the latest in Game of Thrones and A Song of Ice and Fire news. Roll the tape.

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This was a fun show. First, we give away some Game of Thrones Funko Pop! figures; expect more giveaways like this in the near future. We also run through some of the latest bits of Game of Thrones news, including a key character who isn’t returning for the final season and the release of the season 7 finale script.

But the thrust of the episode involves trying to figure out which of several high-concept, wildly expensive sci-fi/fantasy shows on the horizon has the best chance of replacing Game of Thrones in our hearts and in the greater pop cultural consciousness (not counting the actual Game of Thrones spinoff). We asked ourselves two questions: 1) Would we watch the show? And 2) On a scale of 1-10, how likely do we think the show is to fill the gap left by Game of Thrones, 10 being a sure thing and 1 being an impossibility?

Let’s meet the contestants:

1. Amazon’s Lord of the Rings show

Amazon plans to spend $500 million on the first two seasons of this show alone. Reportedly, it’ll be about the adventures of Young Aragorn. Will this be a worthy successor to Thrones?

2. Netflix’s The Witcher

Netflix is adapting this popular fantasy book series-turned smash hit videogame franchise. Geralt of Rivia travels the land plying his very special set of skills to rid the world of monsters. And also maybe Henry Cavill will be in it. Is this what people want?

3. Disney’s live-action Star Wars show

Iron Man director Jon Favreau will direct this 10-episode series. It’ll reportedly run Disney $100 million and be set three years after Return of the Jedi on the planet of Mandalore. When it comes to name recognition, it doesn’t get much bigger than Star Wars.

4. Showtime’s The Kingkiller Chronicles

Hamilton creator Lin-Manuel Miranda executive produces and writes the music for this adaptation of Patrick Rothfuss’ lyrical, slow-moving book series about a red-headed genius who goes on a quest of self-discovery after the mysterious murder of his family. Is this a dark horse contender to inherit the Game of Thrones crown?

And thanks to watcher Daniel Smith for sending in all those photos of his Game of Thrones swag collection!

Let us know what you think about all this below. And join us next Wednesday at 4:00 p.m. CST on our Facebook page for a new episode of Take the Black Live!

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