New Game of Thrones Series in Development From The Batman Writer

HBO continues to bet big on Game of Thrones as their major franchise with work “heating up” on a new prequel series according to The Hollywood Reporter. The new series in the world of Game of Thrones will be another prequel, and it will focus on Aegon Targaryen’s conquest of Westeros in the years that preceded both the mainline Game of Thrones TV series as well as House of the Dragon. According to the trade, Mattson Tomlin, the writer behind The Batman and its upcoming sequel The Batman Part II, has been tapped to write the series.

As THR notes, a series following Aegon conquering Westeros. According to the lore of George R. R. Martin’s series, Aegon was able to actually conquer most of Westeros and unite six of the seven kingdoms together in just two years time, thanks in part to his armies but clearly helped by the dragons at his disposal. He would go on to found the city of King’s Landing where he would create the Iron Throne, two of the prevailing pieces of imagery throughout the larger Game of Thrones franchise. It’s worth noting that despite conquering Westeros one major piece of the Aegon Targaryen puzzle that could be explored in a series is his inability to conquer Dorne, who successfully fought against him.

According to the trade, the series is being described as  a “back to basics” take on the fantasy series. Perhaps the biggest lingering question about will be if this series even see the light of day at all. Since the original Game of Thrones series concluded HBO has put several different ideas into development, some of which have gone on to become a full TV series like House of the Dragon, some of which are targeting a production start later this year with A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms: The Hedge Knight, some that have been shot and then scrapped entirely like The Long Night prequel, and others that didn’t make it out of the development stage at all.

To give you an idea of how often HBO works on new projects and how long they take, just weeks ago at the Primetime Emmy Awards HBO chairman and CEO Casey Bloys had this to say about Game of Thrones plans at the premium cable network:

“I think with a show like this, when somebody reads that something is in development, there becomes an expectation that that is being shot, which is not the case,” Bloys told The Wrap in January. “So right now the only two things that are greenlit are House of the Dragon, obviously, and The Hedge Night. There are a lot of other projects in development but I don’t have anything imminent to report.”