In a pre-pandemic world, eons and eons ago, it was announced that a Game of Thrones animated show was in development. We never heard about this again, as the surely curated info HBO has permitted to eke out has thus far pertained to the upcoming House of the Dragon, as well as occasional news regarding the other in-development live-action shows. But now, for the first time in what seems like an eternity, there’s been an announcement on the animated front. And you know what they say: When it rains, it pours two more GOT animated projects are now in the works, for a total of three.
While the total of alleged upcoming animated shows is currently three, there is only a sliver of information available on exactly one of them, and it concerns a land of which we’ve heard barely a passing glance in Game of Thrones: Yi Ti. The Golden Empire of Yi Ti is a barely spoken of land across the Narrow Sea, considered one of the oldest and most developed societies in the world of Planetos. Inspired by Imperial China, similarly to how Westeros is largely inspired by Medieval Europe, Yi Ti has its own customs and rules, the likes of which I must confess to not recalling!
I’ve often said I like when things are different, and I’m glad that for a change, it sounds like HBO is shaking things up, and exploring not just the history of a location or a family (as they will with the Targaryens and eventually Westeros in House of the Dragon), but is exploring an entirely new location set in the same shared universe, the GOTCU if you will. As a book-familiar, albeit non book-purist myself, I think this provides ample opportunity for the writers to develop their own stories set in this world (presumably with George R. R. Martin’s permission of course). To that end the possibilities are limitless, and with animation at the helm, I suspect the budget wouldn’t be much of a constraint either. Time will tell.
What excites you most about this project?
