Game of Thrones sets sail for animated waters with three potential TV spin-offs

Game of Thrones may be over, but there are plenty more stories to tell in the world of Westeros. And, according to acclaimed author George R.R. Martin, three new spin-offs are seemingly on the cusp of being greenlit by HBO. 

Writing a blog on his own website,, Martin took time from raving about Netflix‘s brilliant animated series Blue Eye Samurai (one of our picks for 2023’s best shows) before switching gears to talk about some potential spin-offs in HBO’s ever-evolving high fantasy franchise.

“As it happens, HBO and I have our own animated projects, set in the world of ‘A Song of Ice & Fire’,” Martin wrote. “None of them have been greenlit yet, but I think we are getting close to taking the next step with a couple of them… We have moved Nine Voyages, our series about the legendary voyages of the Sea Snake [Corlys Velaryon], over from live action to animation.” 

Martin is very much in favor of that development, especially given the vast funds it would’ve taken to make a live-action Nine Voyages TV show. “Budgetary constraints would likely have made a live action version prohibitively expensive”, he wrote, before revealing it would’ve required the expensive creation of a whole new port every week. “There’s a whole world out there, and we have a lot better chance of showing it all with animation”, Martin concluded.

Nine Voyages and its sister animated projects haven’t officially been announced, with Martin reconfirming that nothing is certain in Hollywood when it comes to official TV show confirmations. However, the celebrated scribe has big ambitions for the new series if and when they’re announced for Max in the US, Sky Atlantic in the UK, and Foxtel in Australia. “I hope we can make them as good as gorgeous and gripping as Blue Eye Samurai,” he said, before adding: “We will for damn sure try.”

Nine Voyages and other stories

House of the Dragon season 2 is set to arrive later this year. (Image credit: Theo Whitman/HBO)

For those unfamiliar with the in-development show, Nine Voyages follows the aforementioned Corlys Velaryon – he’s played by Steve Toussaint in Game of Thrones prequel series House of the Dragon – on an epic adventure across Essos. It’s a prequel featuring a much younger version of the character we’ve seen on TV, but it’s still possible Toussaint will voice him if the show is given the go-ahead.

That’s not the only Thrones show we can expect to see in the months and years ahead. House of the Dragon season 2 is set to arrive in mid-2024, while another spin-off show – A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms: The Hedge Knight – will go into production this year after being delayed by the strikes. It’ll be set nearly a century before the events of Game of Thrones and 80 years after House of the Dragon. 

A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms will focus on Ser Duncan The Tall and a young Aegon V Targaryen, with an official logline explaining more: “Set in an age when the Targaryen line still holds the Iron Throne and the memory of the last dragon has not yet passed from living memory, great destinies, powerful foes, and dangerous exploits all await these improbable and incomparable friends.” 

HBO is keeping the plot and cast details close to its corporate chest, but we know it’ll be based on the first of Martin’s ‘Dunk and Egg’ books and has been one of his pet projects for a while. As Martin wrote on in an April 2023 blog post: “Way back in the summer of 2016, when HBO first started thinking about Game of Thrones spinoffs, I pitched them two ideas: the Dance of the Dragons, which in due time became House of the Dragon, and Dunk & Egg. That was seven years ago. The lesson there is that development takes time.”

With any of these other Westeros-based productions make it onto our best Max shows list? We’ll only know once they’re released – well, if they don’t fall by the wayside like Bloodmoon, another Thrones prequel, did in 2018.

You might also like

Marvel engulfed by new crisis as Invincible star Steven Yeun departs Thunderbolts movie castI can’t wait for these 10 exciting TV shows on Netflix, Disney Plus, and more in early 2024Netflix’s mid-air heist movie gets a slick new trailer full of plane action