Warner Bros. has long planned to expand George R. R. Martin’s “Game of Thrones” universe, giving fans of the global fantasy phenomenon more stories set in Westeros and beyond.
With the success of “House of the Dragon” and now “A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms,” it appears the company is keen to continue mining the world Martin created. Some of the prequels in development (which Martin prefers to call “successor shows”) are based on existing stories he’s published, while others would feature new characters and locales.
Here’s everything we know about the “Game of Thrones” spinoff projects in development, rumored to be in development, or returning.
‘House of the Dragon’
“House of the Dragon” was the first “Game of Thrones” spinoff series to hit screens. It’s adapted from Martin’s fictional history of House Targaryen, “Fire & Blood,” which draws on unreliable narratives and sometimes conflicting first-person accounts.
The show was an instant success upon its 2022 premiere, breaking viewership records at HBO and credited with reviving interest in Westeros after the divisive “Game of Thrones” finale.
The second season premiered in 2024, continuing the story of the Targaryen civil war known as the Dance of the Dragons — though with some notable changes from the source material.
Although Martin has stepped away from the show, citing a troubled relationship with showrunner Ryan Condal, HBO executives have stood by its hit adaptation.
“What I would say is George introduced us to Ryan as the person that he thought would be the best to create ‘House the Dragon,'” HBO head Casey Bloys told Deadline. “And I will say Ryan has been an excellent showrunner and a really great partner and collaborator, so we embrace his vision and his creative choices, or we wouldn’t have done it.”
“George is a great partner for us to have,” Bloys added. “The idea that he is going to agree with every creator or showrunner that is either developing or producing, two artists are not always going to agree. So, some of this comes with the territory.”
“House of the Dragon” season three, starring Emma D’Arcy as Rhaenyra Targaryen, Matt Smith as Daemon Targaryen, Olivia Cooke as Alicent Hightower, and more returning favorites, will premiere in June 2026. The show is planned for a four-season arc.
‘Game of Thrones: The Mad King’
In February 2026, official details were announced for “Game of Thrones: The Mad King,” a stage adaptation set shortly before the original series.
Adapted by Duncan Macmillan and directed by Dominic Cooke, the play will focus on younger versions of familiar “Game of Thrones” characters, including Ned Stark, Robert Baratheon, and Jaime Lannister, during the fateful Tourney at Harrenhal.
As book readers know, the jousting tournament became a turning point in Westerosi history when Prince Rhaegar Targaryen crowned Lyanna Stark (who was promised to Robert) as his queen of love and beauty (instead of Rhaegar’s own wife, Elia Martell). This eventually led to Robert’s Rebellion and the downfall of the Targaryen dynasty.
“For my work to now be adapted for the stage is something I did not expect but welcome with great enthusiasm and excitement,” Martin said in a statement. “Theatre offers something unique. A place for mine and the audience’s imagination to meet and hopefully create something magical.”
“Shakespeare is the greatest name in English literature, and his plays have been a constant source of inspiration to me and my writing,” he added. “Not only that, he faced similar challenges in how to put a battle on stage, so we are in good company. It will be thrilling to watch the events of this new play unfold in a live environment.”
The play will premiere at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon this summer.
‘A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms’
“A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms,” starring Peter Claffey as Dunk (aka Ser Duncan the Tall) and Dexter Sol Ansell as his young squire Egg (aka Aegon V Targaryen), has already been renewed following its 2026 premiere.
The first season, set about a century before “Game of Thrones,” was adapted from Martin’s 1998 novella “The Hedge Knight.” According to showrunner Ira Parker, the plan is to adapt all three installments in Martin’s “Tales of Dunk & Egg” series. Season two will tackle 2003’s “The Sworn Sword,” and if the show were to return for a third season, it would be based on 2010’s “The Mystery Knight.”
In a 2014 blog post, Martin said he hopes to publish more novellas about Dunk and Egg, starting with “The Village Hero,” a new adventure set in the Riverlands.
The following year, the author teased more tentative titles for future novellas, including “The Sellsword,” “The Champion,” “The Kingsguard,” and “The Lord Commander.”
In a 2025 blog post praising “A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms” as a faithful adaptation, Martin once again promised to write “The Village Hero” and “all the other tales that await the lads” — but only after he’s finished “The Winds of Winter,” the long-awaited sixth installment in his main book series.
However, even if these novellas never materialize, “A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms” will have plenty of source material to work with. Dunk and Egg’s futures are outlined in Martin’s fictional history book, “The World of Ice & Fire,” and Martin revealed even more details to his trusted showrunner.
“Even though we don’t have the ins and outs of every story, we know canonically the major beats of Dunk and Egg throughout their lives,” Parker told The Hollywood Reporter. “And George has outlined 12 more of these stories that he’s shared with me. These stories take them all the way through their lives.”
“A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms” season two is scheduled to air in 2027.
‘Snow’
“Snow,” which would have explored what happened to fan favorite Jon Snow (Kit Harington) after the events of “Game of Thrones,” was set to be the only spinoff in development that is not based on pre-existing material by Martin.
However, Harington told Screen Rant in April 2024 that the series was no longer in development.
“Currently, it’s off the table, because we all couldn’t find the right story to tell that we were all excited about enough,” Harington said. “So, we decided to lay down tools with it for the time being. There may be a time in the future where we return to it, but at the moment, no. It’s firmly on the shelf.”
A representative for HBO declined to comment on Harington’s remarks.
As audiences will remember, in the eighth and final season of “Game of Thrones,” Jon discovered that he was not in fact the bastard son of Ned Stark, but a secret Targaryen heir.
In the series finale, Jon was exiled beyond the Wall to live out his days with the Free Folk after he killed Queen Daenerys Targaryen (Emilia Clarke).
“The fact he goes to the Wall is the greatest gift and also the greatest curse,” Harington said during a “Game of Thrones” panel in 2020.
“He’s gotta go back up to the place with all this history and live out his life thinking about how he killed Dany, and live out his life thinking about Ygritte dying in his arms, and live out his life thinking about how he hung Olly, and live out his life thinking about all of this trauma, and that, that’s interesting,” Harington continued. “So I think where we leave him at the end of the show, there’s always this feeling of like… I think we wanted some kind of little smile that things are OK. He’s not OK.”
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Harington originally hoped to explore Jon’s new reality, “living alone as a broken man with PTSD.” However, “HBO found the ‘broken Jon Snow’ idea too much of a bummer and eventually pushed it aside.”
Recent reports indicate the “Snow” sequel may be revived with a new writer, Quoc Dang Tran, and a fresh new direction. Possibilities include changing the setting to Essos and adding Jon’s beloved cousin, Arya Stark (Maisie Williams), per THR.
‘Nine Voyages’
In early 2021, Deadline broke the news that a spinoff focused on Corlys Velaryon, nicknamed “The Sea Snake,” was being developed at HBO with a script from “The Mentalist” creator Bruno Heller and support from Martin himself.
Although Corlys was introduced as a powerful patriarch in the first season of “House of the Dragon,” portrayed by Steve Toussaint, “Nine Voyages” would follow a much younger version of the character on his sea-faring journeys to Pentos, Dragonstone, and around the south of Westeros.
Speaking to Entertainment Weekly in 2022, Toussaint said he would love to be involved, even if it’s just for a brief scene.
“If I’m lucky, I might say to them, ‘Let me just be at the beginning [of the show] sitting with a book saying, ‘Let me talk about my life,'” he said. “That’ll be me petitioning.”
However, in 2023, Martin announced that “Nine Voyages” would be moving from live-action to animation.
“Budgetary constraints would likely have made a live action version prohibitively expensive, what with half the show taking place at sea, and the necessity of creating a different port every week, from Driftmark to Lys to the Basilisk Isles to Volantis to Qarth to… well, on and on and on,” Martin wrote on his blog.
“There’s a whole world out there. And we have a lot better chance of showing it all with animation,” Martin added.
As of January 2026, animator Genndy Tartakovsky is reportedly attached to the project, though Bloys declined to comment in an interview with Deadline.
‘10,000 Ships’ and ‘Flea Bottom’
Deadline’s “Nine Voyages” announcement was paired with news that more spinoff series, titled “10,000 Ships” and “Flea Bottom,” were being considered by HBO.
While “Flea Bottom” has since been shelved, it appears that “10,000 Ships” is still going ahead. In an August 2022 interview with The New York Times, Martin described it as “an ‘Odyssey’-like epic,” set about a thousand years before the flagship series.
Martin gave a progress update on “10,000 Ships” in a 2024 blog post, announcing that Pulitzer-winning playwright Eboni Booth was writing a new pilot.
Booth isn’t the first writer to reportedly take a stab at the series: Deadline reported in 2021 that Amanda Segel (“Person of Interest”) was attached to the project, and screenwriter Brian Helgeland told Inverse that he had pitched a script, but the series wasn’t picked up at the time.
“We’re all very excited about this one,” Martin wrote in the 2024 blog post. “Though we’re still trying to figure out how we’re going to pay for ten thousand ships, three hundred dragons, and those giant turtles.”
If it goes ahead, the series will tell the story of warrior queen Princess Nymeria (the namesake of Arya Stark’s direwolf) and the surviving Rhoynars who traveled from Essos to Dorne following their defeat by Valyria and their dragons.
‘The Golden Empire’
“The Golden Empire” is the working title for the animated series about Yi-Ti, Martin’s fantasy version of Imperial China, which has only been briefly mentioned in the “A Song of Ice and Fire” books.
Like “Nine Voyages,” the series will be animated, and according to Martin, the early concept art and script are shaping up quite nicely — though he cautioned that it could be shelved.
In a 2022 blog post, Martin shared that HBO had recruited “a great young writer” for the show and described the art and animation he had seen as “beautiful.”
In the same 2022 New York Times interview where he spoke about “10,000 Ships,” Martin also revealed he’d seen a “terrific script” for “The Golden Empire.”
However, he added, “Obviously, not all these shows we’re developing are going to make it to air, but I hope that several of them do.”
Untitled movie about Aegon’s Conquest
There have been whispers for years about a project focused on Aegon I Targaryen, the first dragonrider to conquer and rule over Westeros.
Although Aegon’s name appears frequently across Martin’s written works, his story has never been brought to the screen. Aegon’s bloody and brutal conquest of the Seven Kingdoms — aided by his two sister-wives, Rhaenys and Visenya — is described in the first half of “Fire & Blood.”
In January 2026, THR reported that Aegon’s Conquest was being developed as a possible drama series for HBO, as well as “a mammoth ‘Dune’-sized feature film.”
In March 2026, multiple trade publications, including THR and Variety, confirmed that a “Game of Thrones” spinoff movie was in the works with writer Beau Willimon (“House of Cards,” “Andor”).
Kim Renfro, Eve Crosbie, and Palmer Haasch contributed reporting to an earlier version of this story.
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