HBO outlines its Game of Thrones spinoff strategy

Today we had our first update in a while about HBO’s long-awaited Game of Thrones spinoff series House of the Dragon. HBO and HBO Max Chief Content Officer Casey Bloys confirmed that the series has wrapped production, which means we’re closer than ever to learning the release date.

In addition to talking about House of the Dragon, Bloys also dropped some new details about the other Thrones spinoffs that HBO has in the pipeline. The network has been exploring all its options when it comes to expanding on the phenomenal success of Game of Thrones. It’s currently developing numerous spinoffs, including 9 Voyages / Sea Snake (which details the voyages of House of the Dragon character Corlys Velaryon in his younger years), 10,000 Ships and the Tales of Dunk & Egg. And those are just the ones we know about!

HBO exec outlines Game of Thrones spinoff strategy

That being said, just because a spinoff is in development doesn’t mean that HBO will actually make a show out of it, as we found out with the cancelled Blood Moon prequel and scrapped Flea Bottom series. Speaking to Deadline, Bloys discussed HBO’s strategy when it comes to the Thrones spinoffs:

"It’s just like any development process. Some are looking really good. Some we’ll see. We’re not going to make everything. I don’t have any mandate that I must make a certain amount of spin offs or prequels or anything like that. We’re really doing it just based on what we’re excited about creatively. I wouldn’t even give you a tease… [that] we might see something this year because I really don’t know, it depends on how the development comes in."

HBO has more than just the live-action spinoffs in the works though; it was also reported last year that they were developing multiple animated Game of Thrones projects. Bloys also weighed in on those. “Again, I think a lot of those were announced as speculative development… very embryonic development. I don’t even know to tell you the truth that we have a writer attached or anything like that,” he said. “The nice thing is because we control the property you can kind of try different things and see what’s exciting without having to commit… so we’ll let the creative lead us.”

Thinking of how Disney has been pummeling us with so many Star Wars and Marvel shows that it’s becoming harder to care about them, or the way Netflix announced three spinoffs for The Witcher before its second season had aired, or the way there are approximately 30,000 Star Trek shows either on the air or in the pipeline, and I’m left with a profound sense of gratitude for how HBO is approaching its Game of Thrones spinoffs. They could be doing that same thing; they know we’d all at least try and watch whatever they put out, but instead they’re letting “the creative lead.” You can’t put a price tag on artistic integrity, and while it remains to be seen if House of the Dragon can live up to the lofty expectations, for now at least we’re optimistic.

House of the Dragon will premiere on HBO and HBO Max sometime this year. The instant a release date is announced, we’ll be spreading word to all corners of the Seven Kingdoms.

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