‘Game Of Thrones’: Casey Bloys On Expanding Franchise With More Series On HBO & HBO Max As ‘House Of the Dragon’ Heads To Production

Nellie Andreeva
·4 min read
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Exactly two years after the eighth and final season of HBO’s Game of Thrones premiered, cameras will start rolling on its successor, prequel series, House of the Dragon.

During a Q&A as part of HBO/HBO Max’s portion of TCA, HBO and HBO Max Chief Content Officer Casey Bloys revealed that House of the Dragon, from George R.R. Martin, Ryan Condal and Miguel Sapochnik, will start production in April oversees.

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“We’re thrilled with Miguel and Ryan, their collaboration and their collaboration with us, and excited to get going,” said Bloys who is hoping to be able to visit the set if he gets vaccinated in time. “That’s all moving ahead and we are excited about that.”

HBO developed five differed prequel ideas, commissioning scripts that resulted in a pilot, which did not go forward, and a straight-to-series order for House of the Dragon. Now the premium cable network is again ramping up development of new prequel prospects, including a series adaptation of George R.R. Martin’s Tales of Dunk & Egg novellas, with the idea to have multiple GoT series on the air at the same time.

“We’ve been talking about areas to develop, which is where this prequel came from,” Bloys said. “We are talking about other areas that make sense as well. George R.R. Martin’s world is so big and what’s interesting about it, not only is it big but he’s got a lot of road maps in terms of history. So one of the great things about House of the Dragon is that’s an established history that leads you to Game of Thrones the show, and there is a lot of little branches. There is a lot of opportunities and stories to tell.”

Bloys would not commit to a number of GoT series he would like to see on the air.

“In terms of the right number, I’d say the number is the shows that are good,” he said. “Id rather get scripts good and make them stories worth telling than shoot for a certain number of shows. I don’t necessary have a number in mind but the goal is always the same which is, let’s get in business with people we believe in and shows that believe in and worry about the rest later.”

Bloys wouldn’t specify who those people might be but Bruno Heller is believed to be one of the writers who has had an exploratory meeting about potentially tackling a GoT project.

While for the past couple of years the focus has been on prequels, Bloys does not rule out potential spinoffs from the mothership GoT series in the future.

“The good news with the prequels is that there is history that George has laid out,” Bloys said. “We are working with George, it would really be something we talk about with him but for right now, the prequels land themselves to it because of the really expansive history that George laid out in his world.”

With HBO Max as a sibling, HBO is focusing on live-action fare, as HBO Max has positioned itself as WarnerMedia’s premium home for animation.

Because of that, if the Game of Thrones franchise expands into animation as has been rumored, that offshoot would be for the streaming platform. (In his dual role, Bloys oversees programming for both HBO and HBO Max.) But right now, that that possibility is far from being real.

“It was really a musing, what would adult animation be like, would GoT land itself to that, so literally that was a conversation and there were a couple of conversations with writers, what do you think, what would this be, is there anything to it,” Bloys said about exploring the idea of an animated GoT series. “When I say embryonic, I mean really really embryonic.”

He reiterated that the the material and the talent would drive the franchise’s expansion.

“I’ve never wanted to do this with a mandate that you must have three series by this time or you must exploit adult animation or you must do that,” he said. “It’s really coming from, would that be interesting, is that good, do we have a writer we believe in. That’s kind of the approach we are taking. I think you have to because if you don’t do that, it would lead to putting shows on for the sake of it.”

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