George R.R. Martin Says Another ‘Game Of Thrones’ Spinoff Concept Is ‘Shelved’ But Others Remain

Game of Thrones author George R.R. Martin has weighed in on the HBO hit series’ spinoff news, with a fresh new entry on his Not A Blog site that is, well, a blog. He wanted to reiterate that none of Throne’s current characters would be appearing in the spinoff that’s been greenlit, since it’s a prequel, mining the same universe but going hundreds of years in the past. Wait, not hundreds, actually 10,000 years in the past it seems.

“Well, assuming the oral histories of the First Men are accurate, but there are maesters at the Citadel who insist it has only been half that long,” he joked. He admitted that it’s very early in the process since they don’t have a director, a cast, a location, or even a title. But he does have a title he would like.

“My vote would be The Long Night, which says it all, but I’d be surprised if that’s where we end up. More likely HBO will want to work the phrase Game of Thrones in there somewhere.”

He’s probably right about that. The branding of Game of Thrones has been a goldmine for the premium cable channel, so it’s a good bet they would want to make use of it with their next series in the franchise.

In the Thrones universe, the phrase “the Long Night” refers to an epoch in which night lasted a generation, Westeros was decimated, and the White Walkers rose to power, explained TVLine. Despite being the ultimate bad guys, the White Walkers have captivated the Thrones audience, spawning a massive amount of fan theories about how they will factor into the eighth and final season. After all, one of the seasons had a promo that said, “All men must die.” If that remains true, it means many faves could end up dying and joining the army of White Walkers.

But what about those other spinoffs? The one that has been greenlit is just a pilot order, not a series. Martin seems to believe more pilots may be made but not all of them and confirmed that one has indeed been shelved.

“Three more Game of Thrones prequels, set in different periods and featuring different characters and storylines, remain in active development.”

He went on to share that he’s heard that one more could get filmed and perhaps even more than one in the years to come.

“We do have an entire world and tens of thousands of years of history to play with, after all. But this is television, so nothing is certain.”