As we wait for Game of Thrones to return this summer, talk of the final season of the fantasy series and a potential spinoff grows ever louder. With a shortened seventh season and likely a shorter final season on the horizon, HBO undoubtedly wants to continue to ride the wave of their most popular series of all time.
At the Television Critics Association (TCA) press tour, HBO’s original programming president Casey Bloys addressed the Game of Thrones spinoff possibilities moving forward (Via Variety).
All I can say is that we’re exploring it. We don’t have any scripts, we’re not even close to saying ‘Oh let’s do this.’ But it’s a big enough property that we would be foolish not to explore it,” he said. “It’s a really rich world. We’d be foolish not to look at it.
So while it seems fans shouldn’t get their hopes up for anything in the immediate future, it certainly seems like there is a real possibility of something after Game of Thrones. Bloys also followed up with Entertainment Weekly mentioning what form such a spinoff might take.
A prequel feels like it has less pressure on it [than a spin-off],” he said “[Author George R.R. Martin’s history of Westeros] gives you areas in which to say to a writer, ‘If you were going to do this, then go flesh it out,’ and we’ll see what comes back. But I don’t feel any pressure that we have to have something.
I agree with Bloys that if Game of Thrones is to have any sort of continuation or spinoff on television, a prequel makes by far the most sense. I would like to champion this idea and explain why a focus on Roberts’s Rebellion is the right approach for a Game of Thrones spinoff series.
***Potential Spoilers for all of Game of Thrones up to this point, show and books***
Part of what makes GoT so compelling is author George R.R. Martin’s eschewing of traditional fantasy storytelling tropes. A traditional fantasy may find a young, unlikely hero rise up and join with friends to rescue a princess and fight to overthrow an evil king. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire series and GoT is what comes after happily ever after, when the noble heroes actually have to rule. At the start of GoT we find a disillusioned King Robert Baratheon still mournful over the loss of Lyanna Stark seventeen years earlier. Ned Stark, a second son is ruling Winterfell and two royal Targaryen youth live in exile across the sea. But how did things get to this point? If there is one thing that is clear in the books and the later seasons of the show it is that history matters. The past is not irrelevant simply because it is past. These characters do not exist in a vacuum and they are deeply affected by the lives they have lived to this point. The events of the past, choices made, battles won and loved ones lost stay with us and have great influence over the present and the future. As we are now seeing on the show, this history is incredibly consequential. Bran looks into the past to find that his bastard half-brother is actually the son of Rhaegar Targaryen and Lyanna Stark and thus has a royal claim. I expect there will be even more revelations before the show is over. How all of this came to be is important which is why Ned Stark and Robert Baratheon’s rebellion against the Mad King would be the basis for a prequel series.
‘Prequel’ doesn’t have to be a dirty word and no matter your feelings on the Star Wars prequels, prior to actually seeing them, everyone was excited for them. The promise of the prequels was that we would finally see all of these iconic moments that we had heard about that lead our characters to where we find them in A New Hope. We all wanted to see the history that Obi-Wan spoke to Luke about. To witness the battles of the clone wars and to see the lost republic and the noble Jedi knights at their height was an incredibly appealing prospect. Above all, what was the friendship like between Obi-Wan and Anakin Skywalker and what lead to Anakin falling to the dark side to become Darth Vader? Like Star Wars, GoT is full of questions about the past in need of answering and iconic events, many alluded to or referenced on the show, that deserve to be fleshed out in a series. Having this history fully realized onscreen would serve to provide greater context for the events of GoT and enrich both series in doing so. Not to mention, the rebellion would be a compelling story in its own right, full of complex characters, doomed romances, epic battles and a truly evil villain in the Mad King. Fans could finally see the enigmatic Rhaegar Targaryen declaring his love for Lyanna Stark, the torture and execution of Ned’s father and older brother, the sack of King’s Landing where the Mountain kills Elia Martell and her children, Jamie killing the Mad King and Ned finding him sitting on the Iron Throne. The series would also have the requisite massive action scene as Robert and Rhaegar fight at the Battle of The Trident. All of these events have been referenced on GoT but to see them actually play out is irresistible for any fan of the show.
Much like the Star Wars prequels and now the spinoff films, the concept of a Robert’s Rebellion prequel series works because it deals with younger versions of characters that the audience already knows and cares about. There is a built-in investment in these characters and their story. Just because we basically know where things end up, as we did with the Star Wars prequels and now Rogue One, that doesn’t take away from the journey of getting there and all the revelations we discover along the way. Plus we get to spend more time with beloved characters who have met less than pleasant fates on GoT. On its surface Robert’s Rebellion is a more traditional fantasy tale as Ned and Robert fight to overthrow the Mad King and save Lyanna Stark, but, as with all of Martin’s work, the story has incredible depth and goes in places you wouldn’t expect. Admittedly, the nature of this story is such that it would likely only support a limited series or two seasons at 10 episodes each at most. A GoT spinoff could take on an anthology format, first with Game of Thrones: Robert’s Rebellion. Like Disney is doing with Star Wars this could be a way to test the waters and see what the potential is to expand the universe moving forward into things such as the fall of Valyria or Aegon’s conquest. George R.R. Martin crafted an entire world of history that is ripe for adaptation and exploration if done with care. When discussing a possible prequel Bloys told EW “We’ll take some shots at it. I’m not going to do it just to do it. It has to feel very special. I would rather have no sequel and leave it as-is then have something we rushed out.”
It seems that HBO has learned some very hard lessons from True Detective season 2 and are approaching this with the right amount of care their prestige property deserves. If HBO does decide to pursue a Game of Thrones spinoff series and they want to do something special and worthwhile and do it right, a Robert’s Rebellion prequel is the story that must be told.
Game of Thrones returns this summer.
