HBO Cancels Long Night GOT prequel and announces House of the Dragon instead, with GRRM and director Sapochnik already on board

[Roma_Victrix]

HBO announces new Game of Thrones spinoff, House of the Dragon: Based on Martin’s story about the Targaryens (Source: The Verge)

HBO gives Game of Thrones Targaryen prequel a full series order (Source: Entertainment Weekly)

So then, legendary director Miguel Sapochnik, who directed episodes like Hardhome and Battle of the Bastards, has already been drafted and GRRM is a leader of the project. The series will be based on his Fire and Blood and will focus on the history of House Targaryen. The major focus will be on the Targaryen civil war (i.e. Blackfyre Rebellion) following the conquest of the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros. This comes right after the announcement that they have decided to scrap plans for another prequel focusing on the Long Night and the Night King, leader of the White Walkers. I think the lackluster ending of the Night King in season 8 of GOT probably killed a lot of fans' desires to see anything more about him and his rather useless army (well, useless to the plot in the grand scheme of things).

In somewhat related news, D&D seemingly abandoned or perhaps were forced out of doing a Star Wars trilogy for Disney, accepting a $200m Netflix deal instead. GOT fans rejoice at this news, judging by all the activity at "Freefolk" on Reddit. Needless to say, they have no kind words to say about Dumb & Dumber. That means they hypothetically rushed and ruined the last two seasons of HBO's Game of Thrones for a project they were either quietly fired from or decided meh, it's not worth it compared to Netflix.

In either case, D&D will have nothing to do with this up and coming prequel series, where GRRM will no doubt attempt to salvage his legacy from the clutches of the dreaded dynamic duo:

[Ishan]

Music to my ears. And lol glad to see the fate of D&D~"Kinda forgot".

[Cookiegod]

I'm pretty sure that George only cares about the money.

[Morifea]

I'm pretty sure that George only cares about the money.

As far as I´m concerned, he can get all the Money in the world, as long as we get the Blackfyre Rebellion.

[Kyriakos]

There are people who still want to watch stuff about this series?

Even without D&D I doubt this will go well.

I suppose no characters we saw in the show are in this timeline. It is again telling that they distanced themselves from what was already presented

[Love Mountain]

Good. D&D completely butchered the last two seasons. I'm loving the PR friendly releases because the reality is probably a lot grizzlier. Let's be real, Season 8 of GOT has possibly destroyed their careers. I won't be surprised if they're going to work on much smaller projects from now on in order to rebuild their credibility.

[Knight of Heaven]

They also wrote the flop that is Gemini Man. That also might have pushed it for Disney executives. At anycase etflix has been meh of late, i doubt D and D will do any good-

[Love Mountain]

Gemini Man is not necessarily their fault. That film has been in development hell for 20 years. It was more of a technology demonstrator than an actual movie if you ask me.

[Gromovnik]

Oh great, more Targaryens and MUH DRAGUNZ"... Jaysus.

[Kyriakos]

I wonder if they will just keep the main sets, although iirc this is a 300 year time difference?
Then again King's Landing moved from a lush forest by the sea to a desert in season8, so there is always room for 'creativity'

[Morifea]

Then again King's Landing moved from a lush forest by the sea to a desert in season8, so there is always room for 'creativity'

Kings Landing simply forgot where it was located

[Roma_Victrix]

These responses are great. I think the final few seasons of Game of Thrones, but season 8 in particular, basically spoiled any chance for this or any spin off to be fully successful. People will still watch it, because there are still die-hard fans and of course people who will watch anything, but a huge part of the former fan base will likely give it a hard pass. You know, on account of the mere memory of the main characters and noble houses being like the taste of ashes in one's mouth.

I think it might turn out to be decent on account of the fact that D&D have nothing to do with it directly, but indirectly their shadow casts over it and the whole legacy of GRRM. The latter has himself to blame, though, for goofing around on this TV series and related side stories, instead of actually finishing the ASOIF series of novels. If it weren't for the stories of characters 300 years later being ruined and making the whole thing seem pointless and nihilistic, this show on its own - if it existed in a vacuum - would probably get a lot more rave reviews than it ultimately will.

The real question is how does HBO avoid the damage caused by another dynamic duo like D&D?

[Love Mountain]

Simple. They abandon this franchise and move on to the next one. I know, I know. In a world where franchise building and existing IP is all the rage, business is afraid to take risks. God forbid we try to create something original. Instead of trying to follow the Marvel model, like literally every single production studio is trying (and in many cases, failing). They should look towards other franchise models that worked in the past. Indiana Jones, X-Men, Star Trek.

[Kyriakos]

"While HBO kind of forgot about D&D and season 8"

[Roma_Victrix]

Simple. They abandon this franchise and move on to the next one. I know, I know. In a world where franchise building and existing IP is all the rage, business is afraid to take risks. God forbid we try to create something original. Instead of trying to follow the Marvel model, like literally every single production studio is trying (and in many cases, failing). They should look towards other franchise models that worked in the past. Indiana Jones, X-Men, Star Trek.

People who like X-Men and Game of Thrones might overlap a bit, but you're comparing apples with oranges here. People who like Game of Thrones don't just watch it for the titties, they also watch it for the dragons, i.e. there are people who exist who want to see medieval fantasy in film, especially intricately developed fictional universes like those of Tolkien and, for better or worse, GRRM.

You can't just say "well, if you liked Lord of the Rings, you'll love Jack Ryan!" LOL. Those two things don't go together, bro.