New ‘Game of Thrones’ Prequel Focused On Aegon’s Conquest Being Discussed at HBO
HBO is internally discussing yet another Game of Thrones prequel series, this time focused on Aegon’s conquest of Westeros.
According to Variety, no writer is attached yet, but the network has started searching for one. Details are very much unclear at the moment, mostly because it’s a very fluid situation, but Variety notes that there is a possibility for a feature film to act as a pilot of sorts to the series, in what would be the first film set in Westeros. The story would be focused on Aegon I Targaryen, who, along with his two sister-wives, conquered six of the seven kingdoms (except Dorne) and was the first to sit on the Iron Throne. Those events took place 300 years prior to Daenerys Targaryen and have been heavily referenced across all the series and its spin-off, House of the Dragon.
Multiple Game of Thrones-related projects have entered some sort of development at HBO even before the original series finished its run. Shortly after the final episode aired, a Naomi Watts-led pilot about the Long Night, set thousands of years before the days of Daenerys Targaryen, was shot and immediately iced as it didn’t meet the quality standards HBO was hoping for.
House of the Dragon was then fast-tracked after George R.R. Martin lobbied for it, and it was finally released last summer to splendid critical and audience reception. A second season, consisting of eight episodes, will begin filming shortly, aiming for a 2024 release; the network, according to Deadline, reconfigured its plans for the second season to move part of its plot and a huge action sequence into the third season, which could get an early green light this year. That would mean that the showrunners could potentially shoot both seasons back-to-back, so that the third airs the year after season 2. It’s still unclear if the series will end with the third or a potential fourth season.
Besides other projects, like a series centered around The Sea Snake (who appeared in House of the Dragon, played by Steve Toussaint), a report came out last year saying that a sequel series to Game of Thrones, led by Kit Harington’s Jon Snow, was also in early development. It’s been nine months and we haven’t had any news about it, despite a Game of Thrones convention happening for the first time last December.
After David Zaslav took over HBO’s parent company, Warner Bros. Discovery last year, he’s mostly been focused on cost-cutting. However, HBO, one of the studio’s most successful brands, has been a safe haven for the most part, with Zaslav repeatedly singing the praises of HBO chief Casey Bloys. (HBO Max, the adjacent streaming service, hasn’t received as many blessings from the studio exec.) Game of Thrones continues to be one of the most relevant IPs on the pop culture zeitgeist, and House of the Dragon‘s extraordinary numbers proved as much.
More news will probably come soon, but if this Aegon-centric show moves forward, it would make a lot more sense than a story around the Sea Snake or Steve Conrad’s Dunk and Egg.
Miguel Fernández is a Spanish student that has movies as his second passion in life. His favorite movie of all time is The Lord of the Rings, but he is also a huge Star Wars fan. However, fantasy movies are not his only cup of tea, as authors like Scorsese, Fincher, Kubrick or Hitchcock have been an obsession for him since he started to understand the language of filmmaking. He is that guy who will watch a black and white movie, just because it is in black and white.
