Looks like it’s finally House Targaryen’s turn to sit in the Big Pokey Boi. According to a new scoop from Deadline, a Game of Thrones prequel based on George R.R. Martin’s doorstopper Targaryen-history book, Fire & Blood, is reportedly nearing a pilot order from HBO.
The network refused to comment, so take this news with a grain of salt, but if this is true, the co-creators will be Martin and Colony executive producer Ryan Condal, who will also write the show. As Deadline noted, though, it looks like the author himself has been dropping several hints. In a (not-a-)blog post from May, he wrote:
Oh, and speaking of television, don’t believe everything you read. Internet reports are notoriously unreliable. We have had five different GAME OF THRONES successor shows in development (I mislike the term “spinoffs”) at HBO, and three of them are still moving forward nicely. The one I am not supposed to call THE LONG NIGHT will be shooting later this year, and two other shows remain in the script stage, but are edging closer. What are they about? I cannot say. But maybe some of you should pick up a copy of FIRE & BLOOD and come up with your own theories.
In case you have yet to heed Martin’s advice, here’s a bit about the book. Set 300 years before the events of A Song and Ice and Fire/HBO’s Game of Thrones, it’s a strictly chronological account of the Targaryen dynasty, ruler by ruler, from its inception 300 years before Game of Thrones to about halfway down the lineage, where the presence of Too Many Targaryens erupts into a long and terrible war called “The Dance of the Dragons”.
It’s also a very in-depth look at Westerosian world-building as the Targaryen kings work out the dirty details of government, infrastructure, economic policy, and all that good stuff. (We stan Jaehaerys! Maybe?) Plus, it answers a lot of random questions that may have popped into your head as you were reading the original series.
Should the series come to fruition, it remains to be seen whether it would stick with a specific period in the Targaryen history (like the aforementioned Dance) or be more of an anthology show, with each season featuring the era of the next Targaryen ruler. If HBO goes with the latter, then the show could conceivably incorporate the Dunk & Egg stories into its telling.
For more on Fire & Blood, check out our in-depth review from last November, and the way-more-fun-to-read speculation on the 6 remaining questions that George R.R. Martin didn’t answer in the book. (Spoilers, obviously, abound.)
