HBO boss talks release plan for Game of Thrones prequel series

Last Updated on July 30, 2021

This year will be a cold and cruel one now that we know GAME OF THRONES isn’t returning for its final season until 2019. GOT fans are like addicts, and we need our fix or we start pulling out hairs and fashioning them into little dire wolves. Waiting may have to start being the name of the game though, as the head of HBO said we may also have to wait a bit for any GAME OF THRONES prequel series that comes after the main show ends.

As of right now there are as many as five prequel/spinoff series reportedly being developed to come out after the main series ends, none of which will feature any cast member of said series. Who knows if we will see any of those shows at all, but if we do, HBO president Casey Bloys told Deadline we will have to wait no less than a year before we get it:

There is not going to be anything in any scenario where we have any sort of prequel air for at least a year after that. I want the final season of Game of Thrones to be the final season of Game of Thrones, I don’t want to use it to launch something else, I want it to stand as the finale of the greatest tv show of all time, I don’t want to do anything that infringes on that.

Five shows certainly seem like overkill, but Bloys doesn’t seem to think we will get all the shows, saying they may go with “anywhere from zero to five but probably more likely around one.” Even though we may not see the prequel series until 2020 or 2021, Bloys did say that a pilot for the show could be shot sometime before then.

The world George R.R. Martin created is incredibly vast and detailed, and there’s no shortage of stories to tell across the rich landscape of Westeros. I’m sure fans are very eager to see what the prequel series has in store, but I never suspected HBO would release it while the original series was still airing. That’s throwing too many eggs in the basket and distracts from the main story we’ve all become so invested in. Look, as long as they don't rush the product in order to meet the demands of the GAME OF THRONES fanbase, I'm sure the prequel will be just as good as the original. Name one other time in TV or movie history where a prequel has let us down!

GAME OF THRONES returns to TV in 2019.