Game of Thrones was such a massive hit for HBO that the network did something it had never done before: made a spinoff. As we speak, the prequel series House of the Dragon is gearing up to film its third season. And there's a new Game of Thrones show A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms on the way.
HBO has developed a number of other spinoff projects beyond that, although a couple have already been shelved; the highest profile project to get put on ice was a sequel series about Jon Snow, which was being developed by actor Kit Harington himself. "Currently, it's off the table, because we all couldn't find the right story to tell that we were all excited about enough," Harington said last year. "So, we decided to lay down tools with it for the time being. There may be a time in the future where we return to it, but at the moment, no. It's firmly on the shelf."
There are a lot of fans who would love to see what Jon Snow got up to after the end of Game of Thrones, and may take heart in Harington's comments about how the show is only shelved "at the moment." A Song of Ice and Fire author George R.R. Martin, who has helped HBO develop a number of these shows, said much the same thing while talking to Collider. "We have various shows we developed that we shelved," he said. "HBO developed them. We hired them, we wrote scripts, and they decided not to proceed with them —for now."
Martin has worked in the television industry for a long time, and he knows of what he speaks. "Nothing ever dies forever in television," he said. "They can still make it three years from now. The book still exists, the scripts still exist. So, who knows? I think some of the projects we've put aside may wake up again."
What Game of Thrones spinoffs is HBO working on?
It's hard to know exactly how many Game of Thrones shows HBO is developing, but here's a rough rundown.
Game of Thrones spinoffs that are already airing or about to air:
- House of the Dragon
- A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms: Based on Martin's Tales of Dunk and Egg novellas, this show is set decades after the events of House of the Dragon but decades before Game of Thrones. It follows a knight and his squire as they travel the Seven Kingdoms. It will be funnier and lighter in tone than either of the other two shows.
Game of Thrones prequels in development
- A live-action TV show about Aegon's Conquest, when Aegon I Targaryen took over the Seven Kingdoms around 300 years before the events of Game of Thrones.
- A live-action TV show about Nymeria of the Rhoynar, who led her people from Essos to Dorne back in the days when the Valyrian empire was still at its height.
- A third live-action show. We don't have any details on this one.
- A Game of Thrones movie.
- An animated series about the youthful adventures of Corlys Velaryon, aka the Sea Snake, played as an older man by Steve Toussaint on House of the Dragon.
- An animated series about the Golden Empire of Yi Ti, a distant civilization we don't hear much about on Game of Thrones.
- Three more animated series. We don't know anything about any of them.
Of these, it sounds the Aegon's Conquest show is the most likely to move forward at some point.
Game of Thrones that have been shelved
- Blood Moon: This show would have been set thousands of years in the past. They filmed a pilot for this series but decided not to go forward with it.
- Snow: The theoretical sequel show about Jon Snow.
The television industry being what it is, we don't know when or whether any of these projects will actually go forward. But Martin is right that anything can happen. In the meantime, the first season of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms comes out later this year and the third season of House of the Dragon is on tap for 2026.
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