Apparently, “The Long Night” applies to both episode three of Game of Thrones‘ final season and the development process on those spin-offs.
In a blog post published on Saturday, book author George R.R. Martin offered an update on the status of the other Game of Thrones-based TV series in the works because, as he puts it, “Internet reports are notoriously unreliable.”
“We have had five different GAME OF THRONES successor shows in development (I mislike the term ‘spin-offs’) at HBO, and three of them are still moving forward nicely,” Martin wrote. “The one I am not supposed to call THE LONG NIGHT will be shooting later this year, and two other shows remain in the script stage, but are edging closer. What are they about? I cannot say. But maybe some of you should pick up a copy of FIRE & BLOOD and come up with your own theories” — Fire & Blood being Martin’s history of House Targaryen.
Of course, projects come in and out of development all the time. It’s the green light that counts most.
In 2017, HBO began developing four series designed to “explore different time periods of George R. R. Martin’s vast and rich universe.” This past April, writer Bryan Cogman (the man behind this season’s “A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms”) confirmed to Variety that a spin-off he was developing wasn’t moving forward.
In 2018, a pilot order was given to a spin-off starring Naomi Watts — the one Martin isn’t supposed to call The Long Night. (That’s the tentative working title.) This is the successor series furthest along.
The story takes place thousands of years before the events of HBO’s Game of Thrones and “chronicles the world’s descent from the golden Age of Heroes into its darkest hour. And only one thing is for sure: From the horrifying secrets of Westeros’ history to the true origin of the white walkers, the mysteries of the East, to the Starks of legend… it’s not the story we think we know.”
Production on the pilot begins early this summer, with director SJ Clarkson (Jessica Jones) at the helm and a hefty ensemble for a cast. An officially announced series order, however, still remains elusive.
And that, for now, is that. We now return you to your regularly scheduled weekly anxiety attack as we trek along through the last season of Game of Thrones.
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