In a recent post on his blog, author George R.R. Martin gave a variety of updates on some upcoming HBO series involving the Game of Thrones property.
In an update to what Martin’s year was like so far, he noted that the successor shows to HBO’s Game of Thrones had taken up much of his time and attention so far, and revealed that he was “deeply, heavily” involved in pretty much every Game of Thrones-related series in development.
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“It’s my world, and while I have been working closely with some fantastic writers and showrunners, ultimately it is up to me to try to keep the canon… well, canonical… and to do all I can to help make the new shows great. (And I love these stories too),” said Martin in his blog.
Getting a bit more specific, Martin confirmed that Bruno Heller — the creator and showrunner of Rome — was writing the pilot script for the Corlys Velaryon series, which will be titled The Sea Snake and will reportedly focus on the famed explorer and trader in the world of Game of Thrones. Elsewhere, Ten Thousand Ships, a series based on the Dornish warrior queen Nymeria, has tapped Amanda Segel (Person of Interest) as showrunner, with Martin noting that she’s already turned in a handful of drafts for the series.
Finally, the previously announced Dunk & Egg series — which is based on Martin’s novellas about a wandering knight and a younger Aegon V Targaryen — will be helmed by Steve Conrad (Patriot). Martin said that he and his team have had “great sessions” with Steve and his team and that the pair has hit it off, and also laid out the plans for the series, including its official name.
“He’s determined to do a faithful adaptation of the stories, which is exactly what I want; these characters and stories are very precious to me,” Martin said. “The first season will be an adaptation of the first novella, The Hedge Knight. Contrary to what you may have read online, the show will not be called Dunk & Egg, which could be mistaken for a sitcom by viewers unfamiliar with the stories. We’re leaning toward A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms for the series title, though The Hedge Knight has its partisans as well.”
Elsewhere in the update, Martin went on to note that the team at HBO and himself were developing various live-action and animated shows for HBO, but that he couldn’t reveal just how many of each were in the works. In an interesting comment, Martin did touch on the fact that some of the ideas that he was a part of were much different in “tone and approach” to previous material that has been released featuring the fictional world of Westeros.
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As far as the animated series in development at HBO goes, Martin said that he couldn’t talk much about those, but did say that things “are moving very fast,” and that he loves some of the concept art he’s been seeing for them. He then touched on news that had leaked several months ago on an animated series set in Yi Ti, a region in the far east of the continent of Essos in Martin’s lore. Martin said that the working title for that series is The Golden Empire and that they have a “great young writer” working on the series.