George R.R. Martin, the author of the “A Song of Ice and Fire” novel saga that became HBO’s “Game of Thrones,” says the franchise’s future is being affected by the current cost-cutting tumult at Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) and content write-downs underway at HBO Max.
Martin offered an update on his Not a Blog page yesterday about what’s happening with the franchise. At last report, HBO was developing multiple spin-offs and had renewed its recent smash hit prequel “House of the Dragon” for a second season.
Many have begun to wonder if things had changed considering WBD’s multi-billion dollar cost-cutting measures, which has seen HBO Max cancelling multiple projects and removing some original films and television series from the platform to potentially license them out to AVOD platforms in order to generate revenue.
In his blog posting, Martin confirms he’s currently working on the second season of “House of the Dragon” and confirms that “several of the other successor shows” in development at the network are still proceeding, however, the rest haven’t been so lucky:
“Some of those [spin-offs] are moving faster than others, as is always the case with development. None have been greenlit yet, though we are hoping… maybe soon. A couple have been shelved, but I would not agree that they are dead. You can take something off the shelf as easily as you can put it on the shelf. All the changes at HBO Max have impacted us, certainly.”
Which ones have been affected isn’t clear though the rumored Flea Bottom-set series is said to be one of the victims. The most high-profile of the other spin-offs, the Jon Snow-centered sequel series, will likely be safe (but Martin doesn’t specifically mention it).
He also confirms he’s still developing the proposed “Wild Cards” TV series, which will largely be based on the 21st book in the series “Fort Freak,” and is still at work on the VERY long-awaited sixth “Game of Thrones” novel “The Winds of Winter”.
