‘Game of Thrones’ Creator George R.R. Martin Strikes Five-Year Deal to Develop Content for HBO and HBO Max

After giving HBO one of their biggest hit show of all time, Game of Thrones creator George R.R. Martin is getting even more comfortable with the cable network and the WarnerMedia streaming service HBO Max. Hot on the heels of news that three Game of Thrones spin-offs were in development at HBO, the fantasy author has struck a five-year deal that will see him developing programming for both HBO and HBO Max.

The Hollywood Reporter has news on George R.R. Martin HBO deal, which earned the author somewhere in the mid-eight figure range. It’s kind of surprising it took this long for HBO to strike an overall deal with the author since there are already five additional projects in development .based in the world of Game of Thrones, which was based on the fantasy novel series A Song of Ice and Fire. On top of that, the spin-off series House of the Dragon has already been greenlit to series.

In case you’ve forgotten, here are the Game of Thrones series in the works at HBO from George R.R. Martin:

• House of the Dragon – Set 300 years before the events of Game of Thrones, the series focuses on House Targaryen when the ancestors of Daenerys Targaryen (Emilia Clarke) ruled Westeros. Olivia Cooke, Emma D’Arcy, Paddy Considine and Matt Smith are among the cast members, and the series comes from co-showrunners Ryan Condal (Colony) and Miguel Sapochnik (director of the “Battle of the Bastards” episode of Game of Thrones and more)
• Untitled Nymeria Project – Set 1,000 years before the events of Game of Thrones, the series focuses on the warrior queen Nymeria, a revered ancestor of House Martell who founded of the kingdom of Dorne. Currently under the working title 10,000 Ships
• The Sea Snake – This would be a potential spin-off of House of the Dragon, focusing on Lord Corlys Velaryon, aka The Sea Snake, the Lord of the Tides and head of House Velaryon. The character, who is the husband of Princess Rhaenys Targaryen (Eve Best), will be played by actor Steve Toussaint in House of the Dragon, and Rome creator Bruno Heller would oversee the series.
• Flea Bottom – Set in the notorious King’s Landing slum of Flea Bottom, a maze of tight streets in the capitol city where Game of Thrones characters Davos Seaworth and Gendry Baratheon were born. Story details are not clear, but it’s expected that the series would focus more on t.he criminal underworld rather than the more upscale worlds we’ve seen in Game of Thrones
• Untitled Dunk and Egg Project – Based on George R.R. Martin’s novellas, the series set 90 years before the events of Game of Thrones would follow the adventures of the hedge knight Ser Duncan the Tall (Dunk) and his squire (Egg), who later becomes King Aegon V Targaryen.
• Untitled Animated Drama – Details are scarce on this project, including when it would take place, but it would be a full fledged animated series that would allow for much more stylized and fantastical elements without worrying about the budget for live-action production.

But Game of Thrones projects aren’t the only things George R.R. Martin is working on with HBO. The author is also working with the cable network on Who Fears Death, an adaptation of Nnedi Okorafor’s 2011 award-winning novel of the same name, and Roadmarks, an adaptation of Roger Zelazny’s 1979 fantasy novel. Martin will executive produce both.

This will undoubtedly be lucrative deal for Martin, but it remains to be seen how good this will turn out for HBO. Trying to duplicate the success of Game of Thrones will be difficult, even with material that is set in the same world. That’s especially true since the final season of the series was considered to be a bit of a disappointment in the end. But maybe new stories set far out from the original series timeline will allow these shows to stand on their own.

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