Game of Thrones is HBO’s biggest cash cow, but the series is down to its final 13 episodes, which will be aired over the course of two seasons. A spinoff to the show has been discussed for years thanks to the robust source material from A Song of Ice and Fire author George R.R. Martin, but had never seriously been pursued. Now, it appears we’re one step closer to that spinoff – multiple reports on Thursday indicated that HBO had agreed to deals with four different writers to develop a spinoff.

Variety notes that there’s no timeframe for the creation of a spinoff, so don’t hold your breath on this happening immediately after the original series comes to a close.

The premium cable channel says that there is no timeline for development of the projects. “We’ll take as much or as little time as the writers need and, as with all our development, we will evaluate what we have when the scripts are in,” a spokesperson said.

The four writers are Max Borenstein (“Kong: Skull Island”),  Jane Goldman (“Kingsman: The Golden Circle”), Brian Helgeland (“Legend”), and Carly Wray (“Mad Men,” “The Leftovers”). Goldman and Wray will each be working individually with novelist and “Game of Thrones” creator George R. R. Martin.

The publication also indicates that current Thrones showrunners Dan Weiss and David Benioff will not write on any of the potential projects, but will be attached, along with Martin.

While there’s no indication about a potential storyline, the New York Times had this nugget about the potential time period of the spinoff.

The premium cable channel announced in a statement Thursday that it was developing scripts to spin off the series that will “explore different time periods of George R.R. Martin’s vast and rich universe.”

Could the spinoff series be an anthology series, with each season possibly covering a different storyline? This has worked quite well for a show like Fargo (not so much for True Detective), and would presumably work well for Thrones.

It’s also not out of the realm of possibility that a spinoff would cover a storyline taking place after the current HBO series, but given that the series has already outpaced Martin’s writing, we’d be dealing with all new material rather than Martin’s writing being optimized for television.

Writers, one request: Robert’s Rebellion. Do it. It’ll be great.

[Variety, New York Times]

About Joe Lucia

I hate your favorite team. I also sort of hate most of my favorite teams.