With only two truncated seasons of Game of Thrones left, HBO isn't quite ready to wish Westeros goodbye. We learned recently that as many as four spinoffs were in the works, with writers Max Borenstein, Jane Goldman, Carly Wray, and Brian Helgeland already on board. There's no guarantee any of the shows will be given a thumbs up, but it sure sounds like that's what the network wants. And now according to George R.R. Martin's Livejournal comments, we know that there's a fifth series being developed and that he's actually doing writing on all of them, not just two as previously reported...
"It was stated in some of the reports that I am working with two of the four writers. That’s not quite right. I’ve actually been working with all four of the writers. Every one of the four has visited me here in Santa Fe, some of them more than once, and we’ve spent days together discussing their ideas, the history of Westeros and the world beyond, and sundry details found only in The World of Ice & Fire and The Lands of Ice & Fire… when we weren’t drinking margaritas and eating chile rellenos and visiting Meow Wolf. They are all amazing talents, and I am excited to be working with them. In between visits, I’ve been in touch with them by phone, text, and email, and I expect there will be a lot more back-and-forth as we move forward."
“We had four scripts in development when I arrived in LA last week, but by the time I left we had five. We have added a fifth writer to the original four. No, I will not reveal the name here. HBO announced the names of the first four, and will no doubt announce the fifth as well, once his deal has closed. He’s a really terrific addition, however, a great guy and a fine writer, and aside from me and maybe Elio and Linda, I don’t know anyone who knows and loves Westeros as well as he does.”
According to Martin, we should probably stop using the term "spinoff", because these shows aren't going to leapfrog from current stories the way a traditional spinoff would. These are actually prequels that won't be following any familiar Game of Thrones characters...
"For what it’s worth, I don’t especially like the term “spinoff,” and I don’t think it really applies to these new projects. What we’re talking about are new stories set in the “secondary universe” (to borrow Tolkien’s term) of Westeros and the world beyond, the world I created for ‘A Song Of Fire And Ice.’ It is a world, and a pretty big one, and if there were eight million stories in the naked city back in the 50s, just think how many more there are in an entire world, and one with thousands of years of recorded history."
"None of these new shows will be ‘spinning off’ from GOT in the traditional sense. We are not talking ‘Joey‘ or ‘After MASH‘ or even ‘Frazier‘ [sic] or ‘Lou Grant,’ where characters from one show continue on to another. So all of you who were hoping for the further adventures of Hot Pie are doomed to disappointment. Every one of the concepts under discussion is a prequel, rather than a sequel. Some may not even be set on Westeros. Rather than ‘spinoff’ or ‘prequel,’ however, I prefer the term ‘successor show.’ That’s what I’ve been calling them."
He also shuts down any hope that one of the shows will follow Dunk & Egg, the popular duo seen in three of Martin's prequel novellas. Sorry, Thronies.
