Though season eight of Game of Thrones will be its last, HBO has no intention of leaving George R.R. Martin‘s world of ice and fire anytime soon. After Thrones ends, the network will almost certainly order at least one spin-off series to air, and possibly even more, considering they are currently developing five potential ideas for another series. While we had our own suggestions for what they should do (Young Oberyn!), a new interview with screenwriter Jane Goldman, one of the five people working on a Game of Thrones spin-off concept, has given us a few clues as to what her story might be about. IGN spoke with Goldman (X-Men: First Class, Kick Ass, Kingsman: Secret Service), who has met and collaborated with Martin himself on the idea. While she did her best not to give too much away in this conversation, a couple of her answers did give us something tangible to go on. For instance, Martin has already said all of the ideas are prequels without any characters from Game of Thrones, specifically eliminating Robert’s Rebellion as a candidate, which narrows the list of options to roughly 12,000 years worth of history (seriously).But when asked if the story will be something book readers know about, Goldman had this to say (we highlighted the most relevant part):
“Yeah, I think as a book reader or as someone who watched the series, you would say, ‘Oh, that! OK.’ Yeah, it would be recognizable as a past event, but I think that’s probably as far as I can go.”
Book readers, who tend to be insane about the history of the story (hey there), would recognize anything unless it was 100% new. But the fact that viewers would also recognize her story limits the possibilities. For example, while the Blackfyre Rebellions are my favorite historical event in Westeros and my top choice for a spin-off, the show has never really mentioned them. The War of the Ninepenny Kings is as close as they got, but the majority of show viewers wouldn’t be immediately familiar with the concept.Goldman did give one other valuable piece of information when asked if “magic or supernatural creatures” were a part of her story.
“Yeah, I mean those are things that exist in the universe that George has created and it’s certainly — that’s an aspect that I love … I’m sure there’s an element of that in anything that’s being developed.”
Magic decreased dramatically in the world with the death of the last dragon about 150 years before Daenerys hatched three eggs (though it never went away entirely, like with the Faceless Men). So Goldman’s idea involves magic, supernatural creatures, and a prequel story viewers will recognize. Based on all of that here are our best ideas for what she could be working on.Dunk and Egg: The only idea that took place after the death of the dragons that still makes sense is this one. One of the most prominent figures during this time period was Lord Bloodraven, who was said to be able to see through trees and use blood magic. Not to mention Martin has said he has way more novellas to write about this famous wandering duo, so there’s a lot more material out there to make it happen.The Dance of the Dragons: The first Targaryen civil war, when dragons fought one another over the skies of Westeros. Shireen Baratheon talked about it numerous times, and Joffrey also mentioned it once. HBO already has many of the sets for this built, so that would leave a lot of budget for dragon fights.Aegon’s Conquest: Everyone who watches the show knows about Aegon Targaryen, and how he conquered the Seven Kingdoms with his two sister-wives and their three dragons. The whole Conquest only took two years, though, and most of it was done without bloodshed. So this seems unlikely.The Doom of Valyria: Now we’re talking. Everyone knows about Valyria, the most powerful empire the world has ever seen. The Valyrian Freehold was built with dragons, until some mysterious cataclysm destroyed the entire peninsula and all the dragonlords except for the Targaryens. Jorah and Tyrion sailed through it, but Valyria and what exactly happened to it is still shrouded in mystery. There would be so much to learn from a series, with never-before introduced characters, as well as plenty of wars for them to fight with dragons.The War Between the Children of the Forest and the First Men: Instantly recognizable and it would take place in a totally different Westeros. And since no one knows anything about the heroes who fought on either side of this war, it would be a lot of new material for viewers.The First Long Night: Or they could just start after the Children and the First Men signed a peace treaty and get right to when they fought together during the original White Walker invasion. But this would be so similar to Game of Thrones‘ main conflict though that we doubt they’d go that route.Of course, with 12,000 years of history to choose from the possibilities aren’t that limited.But what do you think? What other ideas would fit this criteria? Tell us in the comments below which ones we left out.
Images: HBO
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