George RR Martin has confirmed a separate Game Of Thrones spin-off is in the making, following the news that the prequel has been cancelled.
Naomi Watts was supposed to star in the scrapped project, which had been tentatively titled Bloodmoon.
But despite it no longer being on the table, fans of the fantasy epic need not worry, and the creator of the Seven Kingdoms will be working alongside Ryan Condal and Miguel Sapochnik on the new show, House of the Dragon.
Confirming that ‘the dragons are coming back’ in his online blog, the 71-year-old excitedly revealed the news to his readers.
‘Last night in Hollywood at the WarnerMedia Day, HBO made it official,’ he told his readers: ‘We have a green light for a GAME OF THRONES successor show… not just a pilot, but a full season order for ten episodes.’
The star added: ‘HOUSE OF THE DRAGON is the title of the new show, and needless to say it will be centered on House Targaryen, set a couple of centuries before the events of A SONG OF ICE & FIRE and based upon Archmaester Gyldayn’s imaginary history FIRE & BLOOD.’
He then gushed over his right-hand-men Condal and Sapochnik, before giving a sneak peek at what fans can expect from the next installment of the franchise.
‘HOUSE OF THE DRAGON has been in development for several years (though the title has changed a couple of times during that process),’ George confessed.
‘It was actually the first concept I pitched to HBO when we started talking about a successor show, way back in the summer of 2016.’
He wrote: ‘If you’d like to know a bit more of what the show will be about… well, I can’t actually spill those beans, but you might want to pick up a copy of two anthologies I did with Gardner Dozois, DANGEROUS WOMEN and ROGUES, and then move on to Archmaester Gyldayn’s history, FIRE & BLOOD.’
Casey Bloys, president of HBO programming announced the new series at the launch of the HBO Max streaming platform in LA.
He said: ‘It’s my pleasure to announce today that we are ordering House of the Dragon straight to series for HBO.
‘It tells the story of House Targaryen and the early days of Westeros.’
Set 300 years before the events of Game Of Thrones, little is known about House Of The Dragon’s plot line, other than its connection to the Targaryen family history at the beginning of Westeros.
According to Game Of Thrones mythology, the Targaryen clan are one of the former Royal houses within the Seven Kingdoms, who ruled an empire.
Often followed by three dragons, their family declaration is ‘fire and blood’ and they often left both in their wake as they attempted to take over the kingdoms and eventually the walls outside Westeros.
Game Of Thrones is available to stream on Sky, HBO and NOW TV.
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