At the Television Critics Association’s (TCA) summer press tour, HBO president Casey Bloys provided an update on the Game of Thrones spinoffs in the works: The network has decided to move forward with a pilot from A Song of Ice and Fire author George R.R. Martin and Jane Goldman (Kingsman: The Golden Circle, Stardust), while the other four pilots appear to be on hold indefinitely.
While The Verge had previously reported that HBO had ordered Goldman’s pilot, the TCA update better clarifies the fates of the other four pilots, from Max Borenstein, Brian Helgeland, Carly Wray, and Bryan Cogman. One tweet described the other projects as “half dead/half on-hold”; according to The Hollywood Reporter, Bloys said, “Beyond that, no plans to make other ones.” HBO is currently starting the search for a director and a casting director, with the pilot expected to go into production in early 2019, perhaps as early as January.
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We don’t know too much about Martin and Goldman’s pilot, but the recent news about its pickup provided some information: It’s set ten thousand years before the events of ASOIAF, and seems likely to touch upon the Long Night, both judging from the synopsis below and Martin’s own suggestion of The Long Night as a title. The official logline from HBO:
Taking place thousands of years before the events of Game of Thrones, the series chronicles the world’s descent from the golden Age of Heroes into its darkest hour. And only one thing is for sure: from the horrifying secrets of Westeros’s history to the true origin of the white walkers, the mysteries of the East, to the Starks of legend … it’s not the story we think we know.
In addition to both Kingsmen films and Stardust, Goldman has also written the screenplays for Kick-Ass, X-Men: First Class, X-Men: Days of Future Past, and Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children. She is also attached to Disney’s upcoming live-action remake of The Little Mermaid.
The eighth and final season of Game of Thrones will premiere in the first half of 2019, Bloys said. Previous rumors have suggested that it will return in April.
