While HBO/Max has cancelled a number of Game of Thrones spin-offs, is currently airing one, and has others about to release or in development, now it appears the series is heading to…theaters?
In an unexpected turn, THR is reporting that “at least” one film set in the Song of Ice and Fire universe is being quietly developed. The problem is the film has no director, no writer and no cast. So more or less it’s someone going “we should make a Game of Thrones” movie, I guess. Though it seems likely to happen in the context of the current media market and state of the franchise.
This is not the first time this idea has come up. Originally, Game of Thrones showrunners David Benioff and DB Weiss wanted to end the show with three movies instead of its (terrible, it turns out) finale season. George RR Martin has also been talking about a potential Thrones movie for a decade, but WB didn’t bite, wanting to keep things on TV. That may be changing now.
The biggest question is what it would cover. Every single Game of Thrones spin-off in production right now is a prequel to the events of the original show, set dozens or hundreds of years before the series. The only sequel series, a Jon Snow show being pitched by Kit Harrington, was cancelled. My gut tells me this might be the way that WB tries to move past the hated ending of the series and bring some or most of its core characters back to the big screens for a movie or three, as no doubt that would be a big box office draw. While there were many deaths in the final season, essentially the entire remaining Stark clan survived (Jon, Arya, Sansa and who-has-a-better-story-than Bran the Broken), as did Tyrion Lannister. It is also possible Martin himself could be involved to shape everything if it would allow him an excuse not to write Winds of Winter.
Game of Thrones
This idea would almost certainly be a big hit. I think the only thing comparable would be Lord of the Rings as a high profile fantasy series. The box office returns on those?
- The Fellowship of the Ring – $888 million
- The Two Towers – $938 million
- The Return of the King – $1.13 billion
And even the much less-liked Hobbit movies still did big numbers:
- An Unexpected Journey – $1.01 billion
- The Desolation of Smaug – $959 million
- The Battle of the Five Armies – $962 million
Given that nearly all of those movies almost hit a billion in revenue, and a couple of them actually did, it stands to reason that Game of Thrones as the next-most popular fantasy series, possibly ever, could get somewhere at least close to that, meaning a giant budget wouldn’t matter. It’s very easy to see why WB might want to make this happen and again, I do believe it would be a return to the original cast, albeit there is no actual evidence of that here in the early stages. We’ll see.
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