SPOILERS for Game of Thrones, I guess.
I never read GRR Martin’s Game of Thrones books, so when I watched and covered the HBO show, I would simply read all of the book summaries and theories about the connections and Jon Snow’s real identity and how everything was connected back to Robert’s Rebellion. When GoT begins, Robert’s Rebellion is something like twenty years in the past. Jon Snow has grown up with the Starks and he was told that he was Ned Stark’s “bastard.” Considering that so much important sh-t went down in and around Robert’s Rebellion and the Mad King’s murder of Brandon Stark (Ned’s older brother), I often thought that GRR Martin should probably devote a book or a series of books to that immediate history. Looks like HBO has decided to go in a completely different direction. They’re going to make a sequel/spinoff series about Jon Snow.
You know nothing about HBO’s post-Game of Thrones plans. The network has entered into early development on its first sequel to its blockbuster fantasy drama: A live-action spin-off series centered on the fan-favorite character Jon Snow, The Hollywood Reporter has learned.
Kit Harington is attached to reprise the role should a series move forward. The actor was twice nominated for an Emmy for his portrayal of an action-hero who struggles to uphold his family’s noble values in a brutal world. In Thrones’ eighth-and-final season, Jon Snow discovered his true name was Aegon Targaryen, a potential heir to the Iron Throne. In the series finale, he was exiled from Westeros and journeyed North of the Wall with the Wildlings to leave his old life behind.
Since completing his work across eight seasons of Thrones, Harington has appeared in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, co-starring in 2021’s Eternals. He also recently starred in the title role in the National Theater’s live production of Henry V. On Thrones, the actor was known for enduring some of the show’s most grueling filming, including the final season’s infamous 11 weeks of winter night shoots in Northern Ireland.
Perhaps most boldly from a creative standpoint, the project would upend Thrones’ final season as the last word on the fates of the surviving characters in HBO’s most popular and Emmy-winning series of all time. In theory, the project could open the door for other surviving characters from the Thrones universe to reappear – such as Arya Stark (Maisie Williams), Sansa Stark (Sophie Turner) and Brienne of Tarth (Gwendoline Christie).
This development news means there are now seven Thrones projects in the works in addition to the upcoming House of the Dragon prequel series, which debuts Aug. 21. Dragon tells the story of a civil war within House Targaryen and is set about 200 years before the events in Thrones.
Yeah, I’m halfway interested in House of the Dragon just because I’d genuinely like to know more about the Targaryens, especially during their reign in Westeros. Resurrecting the Jon Snow character now for a spinoff series… I don’t know. I just don’t. Would it be set on or beyond the Wall? Or would Jon possibly return to Winterfell to help out Sansa? God knows. All of this has just brought memories flooding back to me of how much I loathed the final season.
Photos courtesy of HBO/GoT.
NO. The whole show was about him and he was wallpaper by the end! The big reveal of his parentage was like the biggest reveal ever and it was for no reason!!
I’m excited for House of the Dragon but I want to remove this whole mess from my mind, lol (the original books too).
They basically made a protagonist a side-character in his own story because they decided to make the final season all about Dragon Barbie.
In the books Jon is interesting, far smarter than his show incarnation who was shoe-horned into a stereotypical action man.
And honestly, what would be the story here? Jon moping around on the Wall or, horror of horrors, the Others are back somehow?
I was never a Dany fan – but I’m actually really hyped for the House of the Dragon because I’m here for the Targaryens being glorious and batshit inbred selves. I hope they go full throttle on the batshittery that was House Targaryen. GRRM was partially inspired by the historical Ptolemies of ancient Egypt (and even then I think he holds back a bit – another example of history being weirder than fiction).
I also cannot wait for House of Dragon esp Matt Smith being batshit with a batshit dragon – he does batshit so well.
I agree that Jon in the books is better than Jon in the show – part of that was because how Kit played the part, a more experienced actor would have brought out the nuances of the character better. Kit spent most of the show moping around looking like a sad emo.
I liked Daenerys a lot but I think there were so many opportunities to highlight both her and Jon at the end. Daenerys for all her flaws is just more interesting than Jon, to me, although book Jon is definitely more interesting.
The issue is, in the books she IS a lot more…unstable. In the show, they painted her as this hero from Season 1 (even the Mhysa nonsense) so naturally it was a disaster when they tried to fast-forward and make her the villain.
Yes, part of why I like Daenerys and the Targaryens is them being those batshit inbred glorious crazy weirdos, lol. Emilia Clarke did a wonderful job salvaging what she could with her portrayal but I didn’t care for the wigletted Abraham Lincoln cosplay they made her into.
I’m SOO excited about Matt Smith playing this grand, scheming rouge!!! I never paid much attention to him until The Crown but he really does posh asshole really well. I’m looking forward to see him app this way up there.
Dany is a super-interesting character in the books – such a great example of a Tragic Hero, which is a trope that female character rarely get to inhabit. I’m not a fan of Emilia (her eyebrow acting is super distracting) but I must say that she did do smug self-righteous hypocrite well. Which is why I absolutely despise ShowDany, she was just so off-putting in her hypocrisy and I just couldn’t with the pop-cultural “rah-rah” girlbossification of her character. They should have more into her moral and psychological deterioration – but they were too intent on having “oh shit” moments where they pulled the rug from under the audience so they tried to hide her descent into darkness to long (the majority of the audience simply weren’t visually literate enough to decode the Nazi aesthetic they started giving her from season 4 and onwards). I get what GRRM is trying to do – and it has worked really well she really became an illustration of how even normal people can buy into the cult of personality that always surrounds charismatic tyrants. (There’s a very loud section of her fan base that is, frankly, scary).
Another huge issue was the truncated last seasons – simply not enough time for so much plot. And my personal pet peeve is the way the show runners rewrote Tyrion to the point that he was pretty much unrecognizable.
One of the real weaknesses of the show is that there were no Targaryen supporters in Westeros coming out of the woodwork when Dany returned. It made sense emotionally that Dany was alone and had been lied to about the support she had in Westeros, but felt very unrealistic. It was only 20 years or so since the death of the Mad King. No King is so mad that there wouldn’t still be someone wanting to support the Targs coming back into power.
Dany’s fate would have made more sense if creepy Targ followers had leapt into place to fill the void of everyone around her who had been killed. I’m guessing Martin had new characters planned for the last books. He did say once that he had come to realize he had killed someone off who he needed to finish the story in the way he had planned.
Jon Snow was my least favorite character. A spin off with Arya would be so much more interesting.
I would have agreed after, like, Season 6. I hated ALL of the Starks after Season 8, it was so sad, lol. They turned into whiny jerks!
I’ll always love the Starks – but I’m pissed that they were put on the side-lines when they are the heart of the story (per GRRM’s words) because the showrunners had a boner for the Lannisters and because Daenerys had unfortunately become the face of the show – and any character who was in opposition to her is constantly written off as a jerk regardless of why they are in opposition to her. It has been very weird seeing people arguing why the wish for political independent was suddenly a bad thing because their favorite pretty tyrant didn’t get what she wanted.
Dany has been absolutely insufferable since season 5! Her book incarnation is a great piece of writing (her tragic end is pretty much foreshadowed from book 1) – but her show incarnation was so annoying that I wished they’d cut her story all together and just kept it focused on the Stark-Lannister conflict.
I am genuinely curious to see if any of these new series will wash away the stench of the final seasons that we all think of when we think back on GOT.
Will we get excited to visit this world again if any of the shows turn out to be good, or great?
From watching what I’ve seen of House of the Dragon I’m thinking and hoping this will be the redo we need, lol. This storyline at least has the benefit of already being finished. I’ve stopped caring about the original series because it’s never going to get done and the show’s end just made me hate everyone.
I feel bad for Emilia Clarke. Even though Daenerys was polarizing she always gave it her all despite health issues and had a good attitude and you could tell the end made her sad, they really did her dirty.
I’m excited by House of the Dragon for reasons I’ve stated above. But I’m most excited about a show about Nymeria that is in development – because there’s a lot of story to mine and an excellent opportunity to show more of the universe, the the cities of the Rhoyne in Essos and the sinister ruins of Sothorys – as well as the entire process of Nymeria and House Martell consolidating Dorne into a single state from a myriad of petty kingdoms. There’s story there for several seasons – and the opportunity to show Dorne more and correct Orientalism of how it was depicted in the show.
C
– Dany burning KL was the least surprising thing in the final season – but I agree that the showrunners were absolute jerks not to clue her in where her character was going because it seemed that she completely bought into Dany the Saviour image (which I find a bit strange after seasons 5-7, but oh well). However, these are the same people who told Sophie Turner that she would get a love interest in season 5 and who water-boarded an actress for hours on end, which traumatized her badly.
Yeah, I’ll watch/read another Game of Thrones property when GRRM finishes the original series of books, which will be never so …
LOL. HBO is trying to fix the mess that they helped create. Anyway, Jon could’ve been a very interesting and complex character. Especially after he was brought back to life. But D&D were two bros who were more interested in making short jokes about him instead of giving him something to do.
I also think this is a case of HBO copying Disney after seeing the success of the Star Wars spin offs – The Mandalorian, Book of Boba Fett, Obi-Wan Kenobi and the other spin offs what were recently announced.
There is a market for GoT spin offs and I think if House of Dragon is a big success then they might do more.
The article says they have seven GoT spin offs in the works including three animated series.
Poor Kit. He’s probably not getting the offers he was hoping for and so the only choice is to go back to playing Jon Snow.
Not sure I’d watch a show where Kit mopes around like a lost Emo.
Now, if it was a show about the early (s)exploits of a certain Red Viper – count me in. He and the Kingdom of Dorne is certainly worth a spinoff.
While I loved Pedro Pascal’s portrayal of Oberyn, I’d rather have a show about the original Nymeria.
Did Kit lose his GoT on crypto/NFTs?? because that’s the only reason this potential spinoff makes sense.
I thought Kit was doing well career wise but in retrospect Eternals did not do as well in the box office as many were anticipating. Also that should have been the movie that launched Kit, Richard Madden and Gemma Chan to A++ level and it didn’t (tbf their careers are going fine but neither are at the level of Zendaya for instance) however I don’t think an Eternals II as a film will happen.
Kit spoke about being worried about being typecast and now it sounds like he’s embracing wearing Jon Snow as an albatross. Def did not see this coming.
It seems like Tom holland, Timothee chalamet, Robert Pattinson or even ezra miller are taking all the hot young actors bigger opportunities for themselves.
Covid has accelerated cinema evolutions , and it must be complicated to find a new work strategy in such a instable situation.
Kit is paying hard not being a great actor, some very public box office failures and being forced to take care of his addictions at a important moment to establish his rising star status.
Well, Ezra Miller is actively destroying his career in a spectacular and quite terrifying way – so maybe a spot is opening up.
@arthistorian
First it’s always a delight to read your great and interesting comments.
i really hope ezra miller will be fired from Warner and their lucrative franchises, but for now they seem to see Amber Heard as the real menace, after gaslighting Ray Fischer hard.
And he isn’ t the only very Highly problematic young actor who thrives in the after #metoo era.
Ansel elgort is discreetly living his Best life with a series renewed for a second season on hbo, and being invited to britney spears recent wedding.
This makes me think that if they get the chance, HBO will try to do a show on Daenerys in the future because she’s the iconic character of GOT.
There is nothing left of interest to tell about her tv version story from her point of vue.
As a Child, the exile and descent into poverty, bitterness and Madness is more pathetic lived in her brother’s eyes as he is the one in charge.
Then they are under varys and friends protection, who are the ones scheming.
She would be a fun cameo or very secondary character in another tale with a new protagonist.
Arya, Bran or even Sansa have more to offer
@Loretta
I have to say I wouldn’t mind a sequel where she resurrects and takes revenge on everything and everyone. Like it or not Daenerys is the face of GOT
Sophie Turner said recently that the work was sometimes emotionally traumatic and two days ago Maisie Turner was saying she didn’t really agree with how they wrote her character at the end, so I don’t see them eager to come back for less than several trucks full of money.
The spin-off they should make is called “Direwolf Babies.” It’s an animated series where Ghost has sired a litter of adorable direwolf pups and they learn lessons about the world as they frolic in the snow. Throw Kit Harrington a bone and he can even voice an animated version of Jon Snow a few times a season.
I would totally watch this puppy cartoon.
The main human character would be Tormund, since he was already a comic relief character and his wild red hair would be a fun visual addition to episodes.
HBO is trying to hedge its bets, but I don’t know that Kit has the same draw as before. Jon Snow was meant to be a tragic character, and Kit didn’t have the experience or the know-how to bring the proper depth to the character.
Looks like I am the only one who might be up for this. I like Matt Smith but I am not that interested in the Targaryen spin-off. I liked Dany in S1 but after that she started to get on my nerves. The dragons were never a draw for me, maybe because I am usually not a fantasy fan. I read all of the GoT books and followed the show for everything in Westeros, not for Dany.
I agree Jon’s character was shafted in the final season, and could have been so much better, but I still liked him. He was my favorite in the books and I liked Show Jon. Maybe they can do something to redress the mess they made in the finale, idk.
I do wish Kit had more options but he’s struggled personally. Maybe stardom isn’t for him. He started off on stage (he was in the original “War Horse” and also “Posh”) and always said he thought of himself more as a stage actor. But he could make BANK doing this series and I could see that being enough of a draw.
It’s sort of a question of where does the character go from here. He loved two women, and they both died in his arms. He has no interest in pursuing his claims to political power. The quest he had to defeat the Night King is over. Was it ever determined if he’s fireproof? Maybe the show is called “Targaryen Fireman” and he’s trying to set up the first Wildling fire department. Everyone starts to resent him because he can rush into burning buildings at no risk – but while fire can kill the people he’s sworn to protect, it’s also the only thing that makes him feel alive.
Two women he had killed to be precise.
Ah yes, let’s make a spin-off about the most boring character left alive … Honestly, the most interesting thing about Jon is his parentage. He killed his lover aunt and now he gets to chill out at the wall for the rest of his days. Boring.
Doesn’t HBO realize they blew it with this show? They sh*t the bed. Why are they inviting us back in for a cuddle?
Well exactly.
The only thing I thank GOT for is letting me discover Emilia Clarke, who I find with a unique sweetness and sensitivity. A rare gem
There phrase “flogging a dead house” comes to mind. HBO can make good TV, why are they wasting time with this?
Can we also take a second and talk about how it’s been ELEVEN YEARS since A Dance With Dragons came out and we are no closer to book 6!?
Yes! Can’t wait. Bring it all. BRING EVERYTHING.
I like Jon Snow and Kit as Jon Snow. I posted elsewhere yesterday that I was so traumatized by the last season that I could not even remember the excitement of watching the earlier seasons for months. I recently found the trick though; forget the last season and just watch the others from the start. I did that during a binge weekend, and WOW all the wonderment came back. It was an astonishing television achievement. So, I don’t care if they do a sequel or not as long as they don’t mention ANYTHING from that last season disaster.
Better yet? Treat that final season like some character’s bad dream and give me an acceptable do over! And if Cersei and Daenerys have to die, let them confront each other in a fierce battle in keeping with the bad ass warriors they were. Maybe it could replace the vapid Battle of Winterfell, which stole an hour of my life and convinced me I’d suddenly gone BLIND in my own living room because I couldn’t see a thing. Darn! I’m mad again.
I’m sad that the show robbed us of the Sansa-Cersei face-off that we all deserved. I found the Dany-Cersei feud boring as hell because it lacked the deep personal history that was between Sansa and Cersei as opponents.
Also, the last season did Lena Heady so dirty – she was one of the best actors on the show and they hardly used her at the end. Plus, she was robbed at the Emmys (why they kept giving Dinklage award after award when he kinda phoned it in in the later seasons).
That was the worst thing about the final episodes. They ruined the prospects of re-watching for me. I hope they do a sequel for Jon just so he can possibly have a less lame ending. I mean, he didn’t die, so that’s good, but he did nothing all season but say “Uh don’t want it” and “you are muh Queen.”
His career is really flopping if he decided to do this sequel. It’s like Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart agree to make a new Twilight movie or Jennifer Lawrence a new Hunger Games movie.