After the huge success of HBO’s adaptations of his Game of Thrones books, George RR Martin has signed a deal to develop several television series for the network and its streaming arm, HBO Max.
Hollywood Reporter has revealed that the author, who won four Emmys for his work on the adaptations of his bestselling A Song of Ice and Fire series, has signed a contract “worth mid-eight figures” spanning five years.
Martin is currently involved in five projects for HBO, expanding on his bestselling fantasy series, including House of the Dragon, a prequel set 300 years before the events of Game of Thrones that will focus on House Targaryen, the powerful dynasty that once ruled Westeros. The 10-episode series, which is set to start production next month and air in 2022, will star Olivia Cooke, Emma D’Arcy, Paddy Considine and Matt Smith.
Other Game of Thrones projects Martin is involved with include a series with the working title 10,000 Ships, about the warrior queen Nymeria, who lived 1,000 years before the events of Martin’s books; a spinoff of House of the Dragon that will follow Lord Corlys Velaryon, also known as the Sea Snake, and the seafaring husband of a Targaryen princess; a series set in the slum Flea Bottom; an adaptation of three novellas by Martin following Dunk and Egg: the hedge knight Ser Duncan the Tall (Dunk) and his squire (Egg), who would later become King Aegon V Targaryen; and an animated series.
Martin is also serving as executive producer on Who Fears Death, an adaptation of Nnedi Okorafor’s 2011 fantasy novel, and an adaptation of Roger Zelanzy’s 1979 novel Roadmarks. His 1979 novelette Sandkings is also currently being adapted for film by Netflix, with Gore Verbinski directing.
Airing between 2011 and 2019, Game of Thrones was one of HBO’s biggest successes, becoming its most viewed show and winning 59 Emmys, a record for a scripted television series.
However, fans are still waiting for Martin to finish writing the books Game of Thrones was based on – the sixth book, The Winds of Winter, has been anticipated since the previous instalment was published in 2011. Martin has repeatedly cited both his workload and travel as preventing him from finishing what will be the penultimate book in the series. Writing on his website in 2019, Martin said that if he did not finish the book by 29 July 2020, fans had permission to imprison him “in a small cabin on White Island, overlooking that lake of sulfuric acid”. He later promised that he would not write any scripts for House of the Dragon until he finished The Winds of Winter, and predicted he would finish the book in 2021.