Winter is indeed coming for Game of Thrones. The wildly popular TV series has finished airing its final and penultimate season and viewers are eagerly anticipating the rescheduling of its eighth and final one which was not liked by the fans at all. Whenever a TV show is a huge success, there’s always talk of making spin-offs, sequels, prequels – any kind of related show that TV executives know fans of the original will watch. Of course, there have been rumours about spin-offs for Game of Thrones, but what do we actually know about them?
How many spin-offs?
It was reported back in May that HBO was looking at developing four spin-offs; that number was later revised to five. HBO President of Programming Casey Bloys then confirmed that only one of them would actually be developed into a full TV series. Of course, if the prequel series is a huge success, that could then warrant the production of another spin-off.
Storyline
Bloys also confirmed that all of the ideas currently being developed are prequels that will not follow on from the eighth season of the parent show. None of the prequels being developed feature any of the characters from the main series. George R. R. Martin, writer of the Game of Thrones novel series, is involved with the development of all the prequels and has called them ‘successor shows’.
Potential air date
It’s currently unconfirmed when the final rescheduling season of Game of Thrones will air. Some think it’s going to air in late 2020, whilst others think an early or mid-2020 release date is more likely. Bloys has mentioned that any prequels won’t air until probably at least a year after the final Game of Thrones season has ended. He doesn’t want any new prequel to distract from the main series, nor does he want the final season of the main series to act as a springboard for launching a prequel series. So we’re probably going to have to wait at least a few years before the prequel series airs.
