Here are all the Game of Thrones spinoffs in the works

When it comes to Game of Thrones, what is dead may never die.

HBO's juggernaut fantasy epic ended in 2019, but there are so many prequels in the works that we may never be without the stories of Westeros. Here's everything we know about all the Game of Thrones–related projects that are now airing, in development, or rumored to be in development.

House of the Dragon

STATUS: Season 2 is now airing

House of the Dragon was first out of the gate for Game of Thrones spinoffs. The series got off to an energetic start in 2022 with its 10-episode first season about the conflicts within House Targaryen that eventually lead to the destructive civil war known as the Dance of the Dragons. The show was quickly renewed for season 2, and earned eight Emmy nominations, as well as a Golden Globe win for Best Drama Series. Co-creator and showrunner Ryan Condal told Entertainment Weekly that they are already deep into planning season 3.

The prequel, which begins 200 hundred years before the events of Game of Thrones, centers around Emma D'Arcy's Rhaenyra Targaryen and Olivia Cooke's Alicent Hightower, two women who are both credited and blamed for starting the civil war that crippled the Targaryen empire during its heyday in Westeros.

Season 1 set the stage for the bloodbath to come. Rhaenyra and Alicent were once inseparable childhood friends torn apart by a plot to marry Alicent to Rhaenyra's father, King Viserys I Targaryen (Paddy Considine), and conceive a male heir that would threaten Rhaenyra's claim to the Iron Throne. Upon the death of Viserys, Rhaenyra's enemies at court usurp her throne and crown Alicent's first-born son Aegon II Targaryen (Tom Glynn-Carney), which splits the great Houses of Westeros in a battle over succession.

The cast also includes Matt Smith as Prince Daemon Targaryen, Rhaenyra's hot-tempered uncle and husband; Rhys Ifans as Otto Hightower, the Hand of the King who orchestrated marrying his daughter Alicent to Viserys and later usurping Rhaenyra's throne; Steve Toussaint as Lord Corlys Velaryon, head of House Velaryon who's known for his famed nautical exploits; Eve Best as Princess Rhaenys Targaryen, Corlys' wife who was passed over for the crown when Viserys ascended; Fabien Frankel as Ser Criston Cole, a knight of the Kingsguard who grows to hate Rhaenyra; and Ewan Mitchell as Aemond Targaryen, another of Alicent's sons who rides the largest dragon in the world.

A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms

STATUS: Filming

The second spinoff to get the official green light from HBO is prequel series A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, based on Martin's novellas that are collectively known as The Tales of Dunk and Egg. Formerly titled A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms: The Hedge Knight, the series was announced in April 2023, but development was stalled due to the Hollywood writers' strike that brought the industry to a standstill later that year. The project is now in production ahead of a planned 2025 premiere.

In the timeline of Westeros, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms takes place after the events of House of the Dragon and just 90 years before Game of Thrones. The first season will adapt the first novella, 1998's The Hedge Knight, and consist of six episodes.

Peter Claffey, a former rugby player and actor from Wreck, stars as Dunk, a squire who takes up the armor of his recently deceased hedge knight, plays himself off as Ser Duncan the Tall, and haphazardly tries to enter a tournament. Dexter Sol Ansell, who appeared in The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes, co-leads the prequel as Egg, Dunk's diminutive squire.

Sam Spruell will play Maekar Targaryen, who eventually becomes king of Westeros in this timeline. Finn Bennett will play Maekar's son Prince Aerion, and Bertie Carvel will play Maekar's brother Prince Baelor. Tanzyn Crawford will play a puppeteer by the name of Tanselle, while Daniel Ings will play Ser Lyonel Baratheon, the heir to Storm's End.

Condal, who also serves as an executive producer on A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, calls Martin's Dunk and Egg novellas "a lone wolf and cub story told in this vast canvas." He explains to EW, "Those always stuck with me as such a wonderful counterpoint to George's world, which was really about the upper crust of the 1 percent: the kings and the high lords and ladies who essentially waged the game of thrones at the expense of the small folk. Well, Dunk and Egg is about the small folk who suffer at the hands of the game of thrones as it's played by the nobles."

Steve Conrad was originally set to helm the project, but he is not currently credited on the series. Ira Parker, who wrote House of the Dragon season 1's fourth episode, writes and executive produces A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms with Martin. Owen Harris of Black Mirror has also been brought on as an EP who will also direct the first three episodes. Sarah Adina Smith of Lessons In Chemistry will direct the other three.

Aegon's Conquest

STATUS: In development

In April 2023, Variety reported that a series about Aegon I Targaryen, a.k.a. Aegon the Conqueror, was in early development. HBO did not comment at the time, but it wasn't until February 2024 that screenwriter Mattson Tomlin (Terminator Zero, The Batman Part II) confirmed that he was attached to a prequel about the storied uniter of Westeros.

"That one is very early days where I'm currently writing the script, currently doing a lot of great back and forth with George," Tomlin told EW.

Based on earlier passages from Fire & Blood, Martin's fictional historical record of House Targaryen published in 2018, the series would focus on Aegon's conquest of Westeros. After the fall of Old Valyria, Aegon and his two sister-wives, Visenya and Rhaenys, flew their dragons to Westeros where he waged a campaign to unite the Seven Kingdoms. He eventually became the first king of Westeros.

House of the Dragon further broadens our understanding of Aegon. As revealed by Viserys in season 1, the Conqueror had a vision of an endless winter bursting forth from the North to cover the entire world. We know this in hindsight to be the prophesied Great War between the living and the undead white walkers. Seeing dragonfire as humanity's best defense against this future threat, Aegon believed it was crucial to unite the realm under Targaryen protection. He called his vision "A Song of Ice and Fire," which is the name Martin gave his core book series that inspired Game of Thrones.

"In speaking to George, it became really clear, 'This is history, treat this like it is what happened,'" Tomlin told EW. "Unlike the original series, I don't have thousands of pages to go off to adapt. I've got a couple hundred that I'm really focused on, and in those pages of Fire & Blood, there are a lot of clues. It kind of turns into doing Napoleon or doing Alexander the Great or doing some great historical figure where we know a lot about the guy. We know where he was, we know who he conquered, we know who lived, and we know who died. That all becomes the plot, and then it becomes my job to go, but what did it mean thematically? How did it feel? What were the emotions when this person died and this person lived? We don't have the context. We don't know what anybody said."

The Sea Snake /Nine Voyages

STATUS: In development

When we meet the man known as the Sea Snake in House of the Dragon, Corlys Velaryon is a wise and world-weary veteran of many adventurers. But Fire & Blood, Martin's fictional book of history on House Targaryen that stretches back much farther than the beginning of the show, is full of fun details about the seafarer's legendary Nine Voyages.

Those past adventures would be good material for another show, and HBO was first reported to be developing a spinoff called Nine Voyages in March 2021. It later changed its working title to The Sea Snake, since "we wanted to avoid having two shows with numbers in the title," according to Martin's blog. (The other numbered title being Ten Thousand Ships — more on that below.)

Funny enough, Martin would go back to referring to the show as Nine Voyages when announcing the treatment is now for an animated series instead of live action. Two other undisclosed animated shows are currently in development.

Given that The Sea Snake would be set earlier in the character's life, Toussaint presumably would not be reprising his role from House of the Dragon. But the actor would still love to be involved, as he told EW in July 2022.

The pilot script hails from The Mentalist creator Bruno Heller, who was previously reported to be pitching GOT spinoff ideas to HBO, like a prequel about Robert's Rebellion.

Ten Thousand Ships

STATUS: In development

This prequel, reportedly set about 1,000 years before the events of Game of Thrones, would follow Princess Nymeria, an ancestor of House Martell who founded Dorne. Known as a true warrior, she was such an iconic figure in the world of Thrones that two characters from the original series were named after her: one of the Sand Snakes (played by Jessica Henwick), as well as Arya Stark's direwolf.

The working title Ten Thousand Ships refers to the number of boats accompanying Nymeria when her army traveled from Essos to Dorne. She later ordered all of the ships to be burned so that turning back was not an option, Martin said.

After some back and forth over the series' status, the show is back on, according to Martin.

After Martin confirmed in March 2022 that Amanda Segel was writing the project and had already delivered "a couple drafts," screenwriter Brian Helgeland, who was developing the show, told Inverse in 2024 it had been scrapped. "It came out great, but I think they felt the period of my show was too far removed from the pillars of the original," he said. "That’s why it hasn’t been picked up yet, but nothing is ever dead."

Then, in June 2024, Martin revealed on his blog that recent Pulitzer Prize–winner Eboni Booth is writing the pilot.

"She’s an amazingly talented young playwright, and a joy to work with; when not writing and producing her prize-winning plays on- and off-Broadway, she has been kept busy by me and HBO, working on a new pilot for Ten Thousand Ships, a Game of Thrones spinoff about Nymeria and the Rhoynar," Martin wrote on his blog. "We’re all very excited about this one ... though we’re still trying to figure out how we’re going to pay for 10,000 ships, 300 dragons, and those giant turtles."

Snow

STATUS: Indefinitely shelved

One Game of Thrones spinoff not based on pre-existing material by Martin was a planned sequel series focusing on what Jon Snow gets up to after the end of the original. Kit Harington was set to reprise his role from the Emmy-winning drama after, as Martin confirmed on his blog, bringing the idea of the spinoff to him in the first place. The actor even brought in his own writers and showrunners (whom Martin declined to name at this stage).

Unfortunately, Harington told EW in an April 2024 interview that "it's not happening."

"We bounced some ideas around and nothing really lit us up. It just didn't," he said. "I think we don't want to do something that's not worth it. So for the time being, we're just shelving it."

Though originally presented as the bastard child of Ned Stark, Jon learned over the course of Thrones that he was actually Ned's nephew, the illegitimate son of Lyanna Stark and Rhaegar Targaryen. (According to legend, David Benioff and D.B. Weiss successfully guessing Jon's secret parentage was what secured Martin's support for them to helm the TV adaptation of A Song of Ice and Fire.) This complicated Jon's relationship with his lover Daenerys Targaryen (Emilia Clarke), who was actually his aunt, after all. The series ended with Jon killing Daenerys and getting exiled to the Night's Watch rather than face execution for regicide.

The very last shot of Game of Thrones, a reflection of the first, was Jon riding out from Castle Black to join his friends in the Free Folk beyond the Wall. It's anyone's guess what happens next.

The Golden Empire

STATUS: TBD

Among the spinoffs HBO was considering at one point for animated titles was one called The Golden Empire. These spinoffs are mostly shrouded in secrecy, but thankfully Martin has given little bits and pieces of information about what fans might be able to expect from the rumored animated Game of Thrones series.

"I am not allowed to talk about most of what's happening, except to say that things are moving very fast, and I love love love some of the concept art I am seeing," Martin wrote in a 2022 blog post. "The news leaked several months ago that one of the animated shows would be set in Yi Ti. That's true. Our working title is The Golden Empire, and we have a great young writer on that one too, and I think the art and animation is just going to be beautiful. I would tell you more if I could. I don't think I can say a word about the other animated shows. Not yet."

However, later that same year, Martin said only two out of the four animated spinoffs in contention were still in development. It's unclear if The Golden Empire is one of them.

Bloodmoon

STATUS: Canceled

Before House of the Dragon, HBO approved a pilot order for a prequel series that would become known as Bloodmoon. It has since become the stuff of Hollywood legend.

Set thousands of years before Game of Thrones during the Age of Heroes, Bloodmoon would have taken place in the lead up to the Long Night war with the white walkers. "The series chronicles the world's descent from the golden Age of Heroes into its darkest hour. And only one thing is for sure: from the horrifying secrets of Westeros' history to the true origin of the white walkers, the mysteries of the East to the Starks of legend… it's not the story we think we know," the official logline read.

HBO shot a pilot in Northern Ireland for reportedly tens of millions. Naomi Watts led a cast that included Naomi Ackie, Denise Gough, Miranda Richardson, Josh Whitehouse, Jamie Campbell Bower, Sheila Atim, Ivanno Jeremiah, Alex Sharp, and Toby Regbo. But the network completely scrapped the project and instead refocused around House of the Dragon.

Casey Bloys, CEO of HBO, told THR that there "wasn't anything glaringly wrong" with the Bloodmoon pilot. Just that, "It required a lot more invention; it was higher risk, higher reward."

Flea Bottom

STATUS: Canceled

Of all the early ideas for Game of Thrones spinoffs, Flea Bottom was in its most seedling form when it was canceled altogether. The show would have explored life in the titular slum of King's Landing. The project was never actually confirmed by HBO.

Robert's Rebellion

STATUS: Unknown

In 2021, after HBO ordered House of the Dragon, EW reported that the network was looking to move ahead on several other concepts for potential spinoffs. One that came up at the time was Robert's Rebellion, the nearly year-long war waged by Robert Baratheon, Eddard Stark, and Jon Arryn to overthrow Aerys II Targaryen, a.k.a. the Mad King.

The conflict ended the Targaryen reign in Westeros and displaced a young Daenerys Targaryen across the Narrow Sea, setting Emilia Clarke's character on a path to becoming the multi-hyphenated ruler we come to know on Game of Thrones. The original series offered plenty of information on Robert's Rebellion and even featured a flashback to a young Ned Stark during this time.

There has been no movement on this concept since those early reports and it's presumed to be scrapped.

[This article was originally published in April 2021 and has been updated with new information.]

Sign up for Entertainment Weekly's free daily newsletter to get breaking TV news, exclusive first looks, recaps, reviews, interviews with your favorite stars, and more.

Related content:

• House of the Dragon renewed for season 3
• The Targaryens are fighting: House of the Dragon trailer promises a fiery civil war
• Why the final season of Game of Thrones holds up better than you remember