HBO is reportedly close to green-lighting a Game of Thrones prequel series based on the history of the Targaryens. Update, October 29th: HBO has confirmed it has picked up House of the Dragon, based on George R.R. Martin’s Fire and Blood, straight to series. Miguel Sapochnik, who won an Emmy for helming the GoT episode “Battle of the Bastards”, will direct.
According to EW, the series will specifically chronicle the Dance of the Dragons, a.k.a. the civil war between Rhaenyra and Aegon Targaryen for control over the Seven Kingdoms. The war occurred roughly 200 years before the events depicted in Game of Thrones.
The series’ plot will pull from Fire and Blood, George R.R. Martin’s recently published book about the history of the Targaryen house. Ryan Condal is said to be writing the pilot episode, and Martin is on board as an executive producer.
The as-yet-untitled series marks the second Game of Thrones prequel ordered by HBO. Already in development is a series set 5,000 years in the past, created by Jane Goldman and starring Naomi Watts, Naomi Ackie, and Jamie Campbell Bower, among others.
When HBO first began mapping out its post-Game of Thrones plans, the network hired as many as five different writers to each develop a different spin-off that would “explore different time periods of George R. R. Martin’s vast and rich universe.” In a blog post earlier this year, Martin revealed that two projects in addition to Goldman’s were “still moving forward nicely.”
Presumably, Fire and Blood is the one of those series; there’s no word on what the second project may entail or if it’s even still in development. HBO head Casey Bloys previously said there was no guarantee that the various GOT offshoots would all make it to air. “The idea is not to do four shows [or five]. The bar set by [David Benioff and DB Weiss] is so high that my hope is to get one show that lives up to it.”
In the meantime, fans can catch the latest leg of the “Game of Thrones Live Concert Experience”, which runs until early October. You can get tickets to the upcoming dates here.
Update: In a post to his blog, George R.R. Martin shared a few additional details about the project. Though he wouldn’t specifically confirm that Condal’s pilot is based on Fire and Blood, he did confirm that it’s a “prequel,” “set thousands of years after [Goodman’s show],” and “yes, it is based on material from one of my books.” He also promised “there will be dragons.”
Martin also said the pilot does not have an “obvious” title, suggesting that it won’t be called Fire and Blood if it is indeed based on that book.
Elsewhere, Martin spoke about his early interactions with Condal:
“It has a script and a bible, and both of them are terrific, first rate, exciting. They’re the work of Ryan Condal. I first met Ryan when he came to New Mexico a couple of years ago to shoot a pilot for a fantasy western called The Sixth Gun, based on the comic book. That show did not go, though I had the pleasure of screening the pilot at my theatre, the Jean Cocteau. Later we also did a premiere for Colony, the aliens-in-LA series that Ryan created and ran. He’s a helluva strong writer, and a huge fan of A Song of Ice & Fire, Dunk & Egg, and Westeros in general. I’ve loved working with him, and if the Seven Gods and HBO are kind, I hope to keep on working with him for years to come on this new successor show.”
