While a second season of House of the Dragon is expected to arrive this year, George R. R. Martin still has plenty Game of Thrones irons in the proverbial fire — including previously hinted-at animated GoT shows he's now shared an update about.
Writing of "Amazing Animation" on his personal blog before ringing in 2024 (December 31), Martin shared a final recommendation for the year in French-American series Blue Eye Samurai — praising its "amazing action sequences and a cast of well-developed characters" — before turning his post to animated endeavours of his own.
"As it happens, HBO and I have our own animated projects, set in the world of A Song of Ice & Fire," Martin wrote, echoing preliminary reports of an animated series from 2021. He added of the projects, however, "None of them have been greenlit yet, but I think we are getting close to taking the next step with a couple of them."
"When this last round of development started a few years back, we had four ideas for animated shows, with some great talents attached. Writers rooms and summits, outline and scripts followed in due course… but, alas, two of the original projects were subsequently shelved," he recalled, sharing, "I still have hopes of presenting the stories that we shelved in another form, perhaps as graphic novels."
Martin also shared that a House of Dragon prequel titled Nine Voyages, a "series about the legendary voyages of the Sea Snake," will now be an animated production as opposed to live action. He explained, "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. There's a whole world out there. And we have a lot better chance of showing it all with animation."
The final tally, Martin writes, finds three animated projects underway. He concludes, "Will any of them make it to air? Happen? No way to know. Nothing is certain in Hollywood. But if it does happen, with one or two or all three shows, I hope we can make them as good as gorgeous and gripping as Blue Eye Samurai. We will for damn sure try." You can find Martin's complete post here.
Read Exclaim!'s review of House of the Dragon's first season. In November, it was announced that Season 2 of the Game of Thrones prequel series would premiere in "early summer" 2024 on HBO.
Writing of "Amazing Animation" on his personal blog before ringing in 2024 (December 31), Martin shared a final recommendation for the year in French-American series Blue Eye Samurai — praising its "amazing action sequences and a cast of well-developed characters" — before turning his post to animated endeavours of his own.
"As it happens, HBO and I have our own animated projects, set in the world of A Song of Ice & Fire," Martin wrote, echoing preliminary reports of an animated series from 2021. He added of the projects, however, "None of them have been greenlit yet, but I think we are getting close to taking the next step with a couple of them."
"When this last round of development started a few years back, we had four ideas for animated shows, with some great talents attached. Writers rooms and summits, outline and scripts followed in due course… but, alas, two of the original projects were subsequently shelved," he recalled, sharing, "I still have hopes of presenting the stories that we shelved in another form, perhaps as graphic novels."
Martin also shared that a House of Dragon prequel titled Nine Voyages, a "series about the legendary voyages of the Sea Snake," will now be an animated production as opposed to live action. He explained, "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. There's a whole world out there. And we have a lot better chance of showing it all with animation."
The final tally, Martin writes, finds three animated projects underway. He concludes, "Will any of them make it to air? Happen? No way to know. Nothing is certain in Hollywood. But if it does happen, with one or two or all three shows, I hope we can make them as good as gorgeous and gripping as Blue Eye Samurai. We will for damn sure try." You can find Martin's complete post here.
Read Exclaim!'s review of House of the Dragon's first season. In November, it was announced that Season 2 of the Game of Thrones prequel series would premiere in "early summer" 2024 on HBO.
