The 10-episode sixth season of Game of Thrones is premiering on HBO this Sunday, April 24, and if showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss go through with their plan to potentially wrap up the show with 13 more episodes, that will leave a dragon-sized hole in HBO’s programming lineup. With shows like Fear the Walking Dead and Better Call Saul gaining popularity, a spin-off seems like a no-brainer, and Entertainment Weekly is reporting that “A Song of Ice and Fire” creator George R.R. Martin may have already written the ideal one.
“The most natural follow-up would be an adaptation of my ‘Dunk & Egg’ stories,” says Martin of his trio of novellas collected in the anthology A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms. Set 90 years before the current saga, these stories center on “hedge knight” Ser Duncan the Tall (later a member of the Kingsguard) and his squire Egg (later King Aegon V Targaryen of Westeros and father of “Mad King” Aerys II).
“Each of the novellas could easily be done as a two-hour stand-alone movie for television; that would probably be the ideal way to do them, rather than as an ongoing weekly series,” added Martin. “’The Hedge Knight’ and its sequels are lighter [in tone] than ‘A Song of Ice and Fire,’ more in the realm of action/adventure.”
Based on the popular book series “A Song of Ice and Fire,” by George R.R. Martin, the hit Emmy-winning fantasy series chronicles an epic struggle for power in a vast and violent kingdom. The ensemble cast for the fifth season included Emmy and Golden Globe winner Peter Dinklage, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Lena Headey, Emilia Clarke, Aidan Gillen, Kit Harington, Diana Rigg, Natalie Dormer, Maisie Williams and Sophie Turner. Former “Deadwood” star Ian McShane is also set to guest star in Game of Thrones season six.
David Benioff, D.B. Weiss, Carolyn Strauss, Frank Doelger and Bernadette Caulfield are the executive producers. The co-executive producers are Guymon Casady, Vince Gerardis and George R.R. Martin.
Game of Thrones season five began with a power vacuum that protagonists across Westeros and Essos were looking to fill. At Castle Black, Jon Snow struggled to balance the demands of the Night’s Watch with those of newly-arrived Stannis Baratheon, who styles himself the rightful king of Westeros. Meanwhile, Cersei scrabbled to hold on to power in King’s Landing amidst the Tyrells and the rise of a religious group led by the enigmatic High Sparrow, while Jaime embarked on a secret mission. Across the Narrow Sea, Arya sought an old friend while a fugitive Tyrion found a new cause. And as danger mounts in Meereen, Daenerys Targaryen found that her tenuous hold on the city requires some hard sacrifices.
