HBO’s fantasy series Game of Thrones ended ignominiously after a truly awful final season. But it covered only a few years. Westeros, Essos and the rest of this world, colloquially called The Known World (the official name for the TV franchise is the World of Westeros), has had a history spanning thousands of years. Thus, there is a lot more to explore beyond a conflict between the Starks and the Lannisters and so on, which was like a beep on the radar of this massive, massive world. HBO, not surprisingly, wasted little time in announcing several spin-off series, one of which — House of the Dragon — is airing right now. But there are many more in development. Here is a Game of Thrones spin-off series list that you need to keep an eye out for.
For those who remember, Game of Thrones, before its miserable final season, was like nothing else on television. I am not even talking about the quality of the show. It’s about how we, the viewers, reacted to it. The world seemed to stand still. After major episodes like “The Rains of Castamere”, all political and social issues faded away into the background temporarily while everyone on social media talked only about the latest deaths or betrayals or somesuch. While House of the Dragon, currently airing weekly, is hugely popular, it cannot hold a candle to the game GoT enjoyed.
Among the titles on the list is A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms. Based on a series of novellas called Tales of Dunk and Egg, it focuses on Ser Duncan the Tall (Peter Claffey), a hedge knight (basically a wandering knight) and his young squire, Egg (Dexter Sol Ansell). Set 90 years before the events of GoT, it is expected to be comparatively smaller in scale with more intimate and character-driven storytelling.
Note that many of these series may not see the light of the day. Most of these are in early development or pre-production. Even greenlit shows that get pilots do not necessarily make it to a full series order. We all know what happened with GoT‘s failed pilot and Bloodmoon, another GoT spin-off that HBO decided was not up to the mark. Additionally, keep in mind that some of these are working titles and the actual name of the series might change later.
The Game of Thrones spin-off series list: Dragons, direwolves and more
Bloodmoon: Cancelled
Created by: Jane Goldman
Cast: Naomi Watts, Josh Whitehouse, Naomi Ackie
Bloodmoon was an ambitious prequel to Game of Thrones that was sadly cancelled by HBO after it went into production. We do not know what exactly happened, and it is likely that we will never know. Clearly, HBO did not think it was worth exploring further and rejected it after watching the pilot.
The show, starring none other than Naomi Watts, was about the fabled Long Night when the Westerosi armies fought the White Walkers and other forces of the dark for the first time — about 8,000 years ago. It is said that winter lasted an entire generation. It was set in the Age of Heroes, which began after the First Man (whose descendants are the Starks) and the Children of the Forest signed a pact. The ‘heroes’ in this age included Bran the Builder, who is believed to have built Winterfell as well as the Wall, and Lann the Clever, the ancestor of the Lannister, who swindled Casterly Rock (ancestral seat of rulers of the Westerlands) from the Casterlys.
Additionally, the show promised to reveal the origins of the Starks themselves, the White Walkers and even explore mysteries of the East. While it did not see the light of day, Bloodmoon will always be remembered as a tantalising glimpse of what could have been.
House of the Dragon: Airing its season 2
Created by: Ryan J. Condal, George R. R. Martin
Cast: Matt Smith, Emma D’Arcy, Olivia Cooke, Rhys Ifans
About two centuries before Game of Thrones, there was an inter-house conflict among two factions of the Targaryens. Called Dance of the Dragons, the dispute stemmed from the matter of who would ascend the Iron Throne — the usual stuff in Westeros. On one side were the Greens, led by Queen Alicent Hightower (Cooke) and on the other were the Blacks, led by Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen (D’Arcy). Also in the fray were Ser Otto Hightower (Ifans) from the Greens and Prince Daemon Targaryen (Smith) from the Blacks. The ensuing conflict caused much destruction of life in Westeros, which led to dragons going extinct (until Emilia Clarke’s Daenerys Targaryen brought them back in GoT, of course) and vastly weakened the Targaryens — it all led to the near-obliteration of them in Robert’s Rebellion.
Since GoT, no show has captured the attention of so many people at the same time as this. House of the Dragon is superbly acted, tightly scripted and has the outstanding production quality that is now familiar to HBO. It helps that the network, unlike streamers like Netflix and Amazon Prime Video, does not debut the whole season all at once. The weekly release schedule builds anticipation and allows for communal viewing experiences. Fans like us theorise and discuss plot points in gatherings and on social media and the gap of seven days keeps the excitement alive.
Snow: Shelved
Created by: Unknown
Cast: Kit Harington
The only sequel spin-off of Game of Thrones was titled Snow (it was a working title) and was going to continue the story of Kit Harington’s Jon Snow character. Harington was supposed to return, and it was he, in fact, who had pitched the idea to Martin and HBO. But it was not to be. It is not officially cancelled, though. As Harington explained to Screen Rant, “In development, you look at every angle, and you see whether it’s worth it. And currently, it’s not. Currently, it’s off the table, because we all couldn’t find the right story to tell that we were all excited about enough. So, we decided to lay down tools with it for the time being. There may be a time in the future where we return to it, but at the moment, no. It’s firmly on the shelf.” The names of writers and showrunners were not revealed.
The finale of Game of Thrones saw Jon Snow venturing Beyond the Wall into the Haunted Forest with his trusty direwolf companion Ghost and the wildlings. Earlier in the show, he was revealed to be not a bastard of Ned Stark (Sean Bean), but actually a trueborn son of Prince Rhaegar Targaryen (Wilf Scolding) and Lyanna Stark (Aisling Franciosi) and the true heir to the Iron Throne. But in the end, it was his cousin Bran Stark who ended up on the Iron Throne.
A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms: Filming
Created by: Owen Harris (director), Sarah Adina Smith (director), Ira Parker (writer), Martin Parker (writer)
Cast: Dexter Sol Ansell, Peter Claffey, Daniel Ings, Bertie Carvel
It’s Westeros, 90 years before Game of Thrones. A hedge knight called Dunk (Claffey, picture above) possesses great physical strength and prowess with the sword but is otherwise simple. He meets a spirited and sharp-witted young boy called Egg (Ansell), who tags along with him. The two traverse the length and breadth of the Seven Kingdoms, meeting new people, both smallfolk and noble, and participating in tournaments and trials. The series is based on the book of the same name that collects previously published novellas: The Hedge Knight, The Sworn Sword and The Mystery Knight.
While the setting is the same, this series will likely be quite different from GoT and House of the Dragon. For one, you will not see any political machinations and epic battles as the scale will be quite smaller. The series will be about the personal growth of the two characters and their bond. Of course, we will get to hear tales of what is going on in the wider world and in King’s Landing (Targaryens still ruled Westeros then), but the story is about the exploits of Dunk and Egg. There is a big reveal about who Egg really is, so refrain from reading the stories or exploring discussions centring around the series on, say, Reddit if you do not wish to be spoiled.
The Golden Empire: Pre-production
Created by: Unknown
Voice cast: Unknown
Martin envisioned The Known World as somewhat similar to our world in the Middle Ages, only with a modicum of fantasy elements like magic, direwolves and dragons, of course. So, it is home to all kinds of people and cultures. In Essos, there lies a nation called Yi Ti, which is the world’s equivalent to Imperial China. The Golden Empire is yet to be greenlit as a series, but if it does get ordered into a series, it will enrich the franchise probably more than any live-action spin-offs. It will be an animated series centring on a yet-explored region; and besides a few Westerosi cameos (we expect), it will go deep into the lore and history of this fascinating yet fascinatingly vague part of The Known World.
Martin wrote on his blog in 2022, “Over on the animated side…well, I am not allowed to talk about most of what’s happening, except to say that things are moving very fast, and I love love love some of the concept art I am seeing. And…wait, come to think of it, the news leaked several months ago that one of the animated shows would be set in Yi Ti. That’s true. Our working title is THE GOLDEN EMPIRE, and we have a great young writer on that one too, and I think the art and animation is just going to be beautiful.”
Ten Thousand Ships: Pre-production
Created by: Eboni Booth (writer)
Cast: Unknown
About a thousand years ago, people called Rhoynar lived along the banks of the Rhoyne River. They were a proud, sophisticated civilisation with grand cities, water-based magic and a thriving culture. But the Valyrians (basically Romans of this world) were expanding further and further, and the Rhoynar region was their next target.
Since there was no question of facing Valyrians and their dragons, Princess Nymeria (Arya Stark’s direwolf is named after her) led her people like Moses to the southern region of Westeros after ordering 10,000 ships built. After reaching what is now Dorne, she got the ships burnt. In Dorne, Nymeria married Lord Mors Martell, and as we know during Game of Thrones, Martells are the overlords of Dorne.
These stories, if told well through the series, could be really exciting. Like many other spin-offs on this list, there is only speculation and no concrete update as to where the series is. Martin said in June 2024 that budget might be an issue for this one.
Booth, the writer of the show’s pilot, won a Pulitzer recently for her play Primary Truth. Congratulating her, Martin wrote on his blog, “Never having won a Pulitzer Prize myself, I am at a loss to explain why the medal shows Ben Franklin rather than Joseph Pulitzer, but Eboni has promised to fill me in after the ceremony. She’s an amazingly talented young playwright, and a joy to work with; when not writing and producing her prize-winning plays on- and off-Broadway, she has been kept busy by me and HBO, working on a new pilot for TEN THOUSAND SHIPS, a GAME OF THRONES spinoff about Nymeria and the Rhoynar.”
“We’re all very excited about this one… though we’re still trying to figure out how we’re going to pay for ten thousand ships, three hundred dragons, and those giant turtles,” he added.
The Sea Snake: Pre-production
Created by: Bruno Heller
Cast: Unknown
For me, this is one of the most exciting GoT spin-offs, and I hope it gets greenlit. I say that not just because Corlys Velaryon or the Sea Snake is an exciting character, but also because Heller, creator of arguably one of the best HBO TV series ever, Rome (2005–2007), is involved as the creator. Corlys is played by Steve Toussaint in House of the Dragon, but he will not reprise his role in the series since it explores the naval adventures of a young Corlys. This series was earlier called Nine Voyages, but the makers wanted it to sound distinct from Ten Thousand Ships — thus, the new title.
Aegon’s Conquest: Pre-production
Created by: Unknown
Cast: Unknown
This series, if it actually gets made, will explore how the Targaryens came to rule Westeros. The answer is quite simple: they had dragons and the rest of Westerosi lords did not. Aegon I Targaryen, along with his sister-wives Visenya and Rhaenys, rained fire all over the Seven Kingdoms for 297 years before the events of Game of Thrones. Aegon brought every single lord to heels and Seven Kingdoms became so only in name. It was now only a single kingdom, one ruled by the Targaryens from the newly built city called King’s Landing — the spot where Aegon landed with Balerion the Black Dread, the largest dragon. There is little information about the series beyond that it is in development.
Flea Bottom: Cancelled
Created by: Unknown
Cast: Unknown
Flea Bottom is the name of a slum in King’s Landing, the capital of Westeros and the seat of the Iron Throne. Characters like Davos Seaworth (played by Liam Cunningham in GoT) came from Flea Bottom. The series was cancelled and rightly so perhaps because there was little to explore here, and there is no source material written by Martin to fall back on.
Robert’s Rebellion: Pre-production
Created by: Unknown
Cast: Unknown
Set 15 years before Game of Thrones, this prequel series would cover the war that led to Robert Baratheon being crowned and the near-destruction of the Targaryens by Baratheons and Starks. We will see major characters like Robert, Ned Stark, Catelyn Stark, Cersei Baratheon, Jaime Lannister and Tyrion Lannister making a return, albeit played by much younger actors. Robert Aramayo played a young Ned in a flashback scene in GoT and the actor, also known for playing young Elrond in Amazon Prime Video’s The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, may return. You can see his appearance in the above video.
Robert Baratheon, the charismatic and fierce warrior, leads the rebellion, driven by his love for Lyanna Stark, Ned’s fierce and beautiful sister and his determination to end Targaryen rule after Ned’s father Lord Rickard Stark and his elder brother, Brandon Stark (not to be confused with Ned’s young son, also called Brandon). Lyanna’s capture by Rhaegar Targaryen (though we now know she went with him willingly) ignites the war. Rhaegar Targaryen and Tywin Lannister will also be key figures.
Fans want Henry Cavill to essay young Robert and that would be a great casting — if the series goes ahead, that is. I am dubious since it will be extremely expensive, as it will cover an all-out war that encompasses nearly the entirety of Westeros.
(Hero image credit: IMDb; Featured image credit: © 2019 – HBO/IMDb)
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
-Are there any Game of Thrones spin-offs?
Yes, and one, House of the Dragon, is already airing its second season. Many more are in various stages of development. A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms is being filmed right now and has been ordered into a series.
-What comes after House of the Dragon?
After House of the Dragon, which will continue for at least three seasons, we will see A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms. The latest update is about The Golden Empire, so we might see it as well after HotD.
-Is House of the Dragon season 2 coming?
House of the Dragon season 2 is already here, and the first episode premiered on 16 June (17 June in Malaysia).
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Kshitij is a journalism graduate who did not initially intend to become a film critic, but such are the vagaries of destiny. Now, Kshitij is a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic and a member of the Film Critics Guild, bringing expertise and experience in evaluating entertainment content with him. Additionally, he serves as a jury member on the Critics' Choice Awards in India. When he's not busy wielding words, catch him nose-deep in books or joyfully lost in the realms of gaming and photography.
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