Now that the first season of House of the Dragon is behind us, many are looking ahead to the other Game of Thrones spin-offs HBO has in development, wondering if any will premiere before the second season of the Targaryen prequel comes out. In case you haven’t kept up, there have been many different series said to be in development, from The Hedge Knight to 10,000 Ships and more. There’s also that Corlys Velaryon show which is to be titled The Sea Snake, if it eventually gets picked up.
At this time, it’s pretty definite we won’t be seeing any Game of Thrones spin-offs — no, not even the Jon Snow sequel — before the release of House of the Dragon season 2. The second season is expected out sometime in 2024, and considering none of the spin-offs have officially been ordered, there’s not enough time to get one up and running before that.
So with that in mind, what’s going on with the Sea Snake spin-off? Is there any chance we’ll be getting that soon, or will it even happen at all?
Is the Game of Thrones Sea Snake spin-off still happening?
During a virtual event with writer David Anthony Durham in October of this year, George R.R. Martin confirmed that the Sea Snake spin-off is, in fact, still in the works. That said, he didn’t really give any other updates beyond that. We know from one of Martin’s blog posts from March that the creator of the HBO show Rome, Bruno Heller, is (or was) working on writing the pilot for The Sea Snake.
In that same blog post, Martin confirmed that the Hedge Knight and 10,000 Ships live-action shows are both moving along. Compare that with a more recent blog post from June where he said he’s involved in the three mentioned shows, as well as the Jon Snow sequel, and we can see which spin-offs are the most likely to actually happen. That would be The Sea Snake, The Hedge Knight, 10,000 Ships, and Snow. As for which will come first, we’re in the dark.
The good news is there’s a high chance the Sea Snake spin-off will happen, but there’s just no way to estimate a timeline.
Who is the Sea Snake?
In case you’re unfamiliar, Corlys Velaryon, a.k.a. the Sea Snake, is a prominent character in George R.R. Martin’s House Targaryen history book, Fire & Blood. The Velaryons are of Valyrian descent and are close allies of the Targaryens. They are one of the oldest and most respected houses in Westeros and rule the island of Driftmark. We get to know Corlys as an older man in House of the Dragon, but Fire & Blood details his eventful upbringing which we don’t get to see onscreen.
Corlys was known from a young age to love the sea, making voyages and becoming a skilled sailor. The ship he would eventually sail is called the Sea Snake, hence how he got his nickname. His many expeditions, as detailed in Maester Mathis’ “The Nine Voyages,” would make for really awesome television. That’s why fans of the Game of Thrones universe really want this spin-off!
And if we do get to see The Sea Snake, the actor who plays him in House of the Dragon would love to be involved. During an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Steve Toussaint shared an idea for how he could appear in the show, which would take place many years before the one he’s on:
"If I’m lucky, I might say to them, ‘Let me just be at the beginning [of the show] sitting with a book saying, ‘Let me talk about my life.’ That’ll be me petitioning. But no, all you can hope for is that what I do is good enough and vivid enough and interesting enough for people to want to know, how did that person get there? And then that show, whatever that is, whenever that happens, it has a life of its own for whoever the lucky guy is that plays it."
As a Corlys fan, I’m keeping my fingers crossed for any news about the spin-off soon! And of course, we’ll be sure to keep you updated once we hear anything.
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