Game Of Thrones Prequel Still In Talks At HBO

Fans are preparing for Game of Thrones to wind down, but that doesn't necessarily mean that fans will have to leave Westeros forever.

When George R.R. Martin wrote the original novel A Game of Thrones, he created a vast fantasy world with generations worth of history. HBO has never created a spinoff or prequel to any of their original series before, but they may break that streak in order to explore more of Game of Thrones' world.

"I would say it's still kind of preliminary ongoing talks," HBO's programming president Casey Bloys told Entertainment Weekly when asked about a possible prequel. "There are areas we are exploring, but I wouldn't point to any one and say, 'This is what we're going to do.'"

Game of Thrones is a critically-acclaimed, Emmy Award-winning series that is regularly watched by 20 million people worldwide. It is no wonder that HBO may be considering extending that run, in some form, after Game of Thrones eighth and final season. Bloys was even hesitant to commit to the exact number of episodes that will make up Game of Thrones Season 8. Showrunners D.B. Weiss and David Benioff have proposed six, but Bloys says, "I'll take as much as we can get."

Bloys echoed the sentiment when asked about the possibility of the Game of Thrones series finale being screened in movie theaters, something that Martin and some fans have lobbied for, and the BBC series Doctor Who has experimented with. "I want everything I can get for HBO, I'll just leave it at that," Bloys said.

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While Bloys remains diplomatic on the matter, there are plenty of possible inspirations for a Game of Thrones prequel from within the source material. Martin himself penned a series of prequel novellas dubbed "The Tales of Dunk and Egg" and collected in A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms. The novellas chronicle the adventures of the hedge knight Ser Duncan the Tall and his squire, Egg, who is secretly the young Prince Aegon V Targaryen. The stories are considerably more episodic than Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series, which could provide plenty of room for expansion and new stories by an HBO writers room.

Game of Thrones Season 7 isn't currently in production at various location and will premiere on HBO in the summer fo 2017.