HBO Confirms Game of Thrones Movie (But What Should It Be About?)

HBO chief executive Casey Bloys just confirmed that Warner Bros. is developing a possible movie spin-off of Game of Thrones. Bloys spoke at a press event on Tuesday, where he addressed the recent reports about a movie set in Westeros. While the project is real, there’s no guarantee it will get the green light, and Bloys didn’t share any significant details about the plot.

Bloys said that Warner Bros. is looking at ideas for a film spin-off of Game of Thrones in collaboration with author George R.R. Martin. According to a report by Variety, he said: “They’re going to develop ideas. We’ll see if it’s good. We’ll read the scripts along with them. I think it could be fun and interesting. I mean, that’s the point of development, you see is ‘Is there a story that’s worthy of being in theaters and a big spectacle?’ I think it would be fun.”

With no other details to go on, fans can only speculate about what this movie might be about. Many are assuming this is the latest iteration of the reported prequel about Aegon’s Conquest – the war in which House Targaryen unified the Seven Kingdoms into one realm. In the last few years, some reports have suggested that this project might be a movie or a series of movies, but they’ve never suggested it would be outsourced from HBO to WB.

Aegon’s Conquest

Last we heard, Aegon’s Conquest was being developed by screenwriter Mattson Tomlin – one of the scribes behind The Batman, and the showrunner of Terminator Zero. Tomlin discussed the project in an interview with Entertainment Weekly back in May, saying that he was consulting with Martin directly.

Like House of the Dragon, an adaptation about Aegon’s Conquest would be based primarily on Martin’s history book, Fire & Blood. Tomlin said: “Unlike the original series, I don’t have thousands of pages to go off to adapt. I’ve got a couple hundred that I’m really focused on, and in those pages of Fire & Blood, there are a lot of clues. It kind of turns into doing Napoleon or doing Alexander the Great or doing some great historical figure where we know a lot about the guy. We know where he was, we know who he conquered, we know who lived, and we know who died. That all becomes the plot, and then it becomes my job to go, but what did it mean thematically? How did it feel? What were the emotions when this person died and this person lived? We don’t have the context. We don’t know what anybody said.”

Blackfyre Rebellions

Another popular idea is that this movie might be about the Blackfyre Rebellions – a series of wars that took place in the decades before Game of Thrones. Not only is this an action-packed part of Martin’s history to put on the big screen – it would be a symbiotic tie-in to the upcoming series A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms: The Hedge Knight. That show will adapt Martin’s novellas The Tales of Dunk and Egg, which start between the first and second Blackfyre Rebellion. While those tell a close, personal story focused primarily on two characters, a movie about the wars themselves could give context that would enhance the experience for fans.

While fans have longed to see more of the Blackfyre Rebellions – both on the page and on screen – there have never been any substantial rumors about this story getting adapted. However, these wars will be a huge part of Martin’s upcoming history book Blood & Fire, so it’s not out of the question.

Other Ideas

Considering how much background Martin has provided on his fictional world, there are many other things this movie project could be about. We can safely assume it won’t cover the same material as the TV shows, which means it won’t do the Dunk and Egg novellas nor the Dance of the Dragons – the civil war that House of the Dragon is about. However, the movies could pick up one of the ideas that was already in development for a TV series. That includes The Sea Snake – a prequel about a young Corlys Velaryon sailing around the world, and Ten Thousand Ships – a prequel about the Rhoynish exodus from Essos to Westeros. There’s also the scrapped pilot Bloodmoon, which was about the ancient “Age of Heroes” in Westeros.

Sequel

Finally, some fans are holding out hope that this movie will be a sequel to Game of Thrones that will help vindicate the series’ reviled ending. This wouldn’t be based directly on any of Martin’s writing, of course, but it’s an idea that has circulated plenty before. HBO developed a sequel series with Kit Harington, who would have reprised his role as Jon Snow, and just this week Martin mentioned a meeting with Maisie Williams as well.

Whatever Warner Bros. is working on, it’s in the early stages now and there’s no guarantee we’ll see it come to fruition. For now, Game of Thrones and House of the Dragon are streaming on Max, with The Hedge Knight slated to premiere in 2025 and House of the Dragon Season 3 scheduled for 2026. Martin’s books are available now in print, digital and audiobook formats.