Every Game of Thrones spinoff in development HBO, ranked by hype
Play about the Tourney at Harrenhal
Shifting mediums, a Game of Thrones play is coming to Broadway! The play will center around the tourney at Harrenhal that served as the catalyst for Robert’s Rebellion, where Rhaegar Targaryen crowned Lyanna Stark the queen of love and beauty, infuriating Lyanna’s intended Robert Baratheon, embarrassing his own wife Elia Martell, and shocking all in attendance. It will be produced by Simon Painter and Tim Lawson, in partnership with Kilburn Live, based on a story by Martin, who is working alongside writer Duncan MacMillan and director Dominic Cooke. The play will hopefully debut on Broadway, at the West End, and in Australia in 2023.
At first, someone got their wires crossed and reported that this project was actually a prequel TV series about Robert’s Rebellion, but that was never a thing: this play was all that was ever in development on that score.
The Tourney at Harrenhal is a crucial point in the history of Westeros, and the play will be set less than two decades before Game of Thrones. Fan sentiment is torn on this: on the one hand, we would finally get the official version of the Tourney. In Game of Thrones as well as in the books, we only have the “official” account of these events as told by the winning side, which is basically pro-Baratheon/Lannister propaganda. This play, telling the story as it really happened, is all we’ve all been waiting for, and yet don’t want.
George R.R. Martin himself has said multiple times that he would never write an account of the events in Robert’s Rebellion, and fans respected that decision. We may write and read fan-fiction about it, but perhaps that is why Harrenhal is one of the most beloved events in ASOIAF lore: because we have to make our own canon.
We like that certain things may remain a mystery, not only Jon Snow’s parentage — which, while still debated in fandom, was pretty much confirmed by Game of Thrones — but many other plot lines, secrets and loose ends. Was Rhaegar Targaryen truly planning a council/coup to dethrone his father, King Aerys? Was Lyanna the Knight of the Laughing Tree and is that how Rhaegar met her? Does Howland Reed know everything? Does Benjen Stark? Did Elia Martell encourage her husband to pursue Lyanna? Whatever happened to Ashara Dayne that night at Harrenhal?
It seems that Martin has let go of his reticence to write about this particular part of his story, and if the plot and words are coming from his willing pen, we can hope for the best. After all, the Tourney at Harrenhal does lend itself quite well to a stage production. It’s one event happening in one location with lots of characters having lots of interesting conversations.
We know for sure that the play will not be a musical. Although I am personally a great fan of musicals, this is good news even to me, because the only musical moments that truly deserve to happen are those of Rhaegar singing and playing his famed silver harp. I think we can all do without a young and cocky Robert Baratheon breaking into song and dance about his supposed love for Lyanna as he jumps into bed with anything that moves.
Regardless, I hope Martin will find it in him to reveal that Elia Martell and Lyanna Stark were allies from the start, not the rivals the realm painted them to be, and that Rhaegar did everything he did at the tourney and after with his wife’s full approval.
I am so excited to see these ladies portrayed properly, as well as young Brandon Stark, Oberyn Martell, Jon Connington, and so many more.
Hype Level: High, but on thin ice
One wrong move and the entire story is ruined forever. Yes, I’m looking at you, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child.