‘Game of Thrones’ Author Discusses Animated Spinoffs and the Struggles of Adaptation

Author George R.R. Martin spoke to students and faculty at Oxford University earlier this month in a wide-ranging interview that was just uploaded to YouTube by the school. It mostly focused on Martin’s literary career and his series A Song of Ice and Fire, but it touched on HBO’s adaptations including Game of Thrones and House of the Dragon as well. Near the end, Martin answered a question from the audience with a nod towards the TV spinoffs that are currently in development – including four shows that would be animated rather than live-action.

Martin talked about screen adaptations a few times throughout the interview, but he really delved into the topic at the end when a fan brought up the popular idea of remaking Game of Thrones as an animated series instead. This idea often circulates online as a way to do the story more faithfully and with more financial freedom, but Martin said simply that it was up to HBO. However, he pointed out that there are seven Game of Thrones spinoff shows in development, and four of them are animated.

“We are developing, one, two… seven other shows set in various parts of Westeros,” Martin said as the crowd laughed at his mental math. “Three of them are live-action, and four of them are animated shows – if they’re made. Now, there’s no guarantee they’ll be made, I mean the way television works, you work for a year or two years or whatever. You develop a show, you write treatments, you get notes, you write screenplays, you get more notes – and eventually they say ‘We’ll make it’ or ‘We won’t make it.’”

Previous reports have said that one of the animated shows in development would take place in the far-off empire of Yi Ti, while another would be about Corlys “The Sea Snake” Velaryon and his “Nine Voyages” around the world. The other two are still mysteries to the public. Martin shared his opinion on these projects without giving any new details, saying: “Some of the animated shows, I think, would be really good. I mean, one of the shows we’ve been working on for a couple years is a prequel about the Sea Snake Corlys Velaryon and his nine epic voyages. He was like the Magellan of Westeros, and we call it Nine Voyages or The Sea Snake.“

“We developed that as live-action for a couple years and then we realized that there’s no way that we could ever afford to make it live-action,” he went on. “It all takes place at sea, and he visits a different city every week, so we’d have to be creating Qarth and Braavos and Ib and whatever – but we could do it animated. So now we’re developing that to be an animated show if we can get it going.”

Martin also did not say much about his long-anticipated finale to A Song of Ice and Fire, at least in the way of concrete news. However, with two shows now running on HBO, it’s a great time to be a fan of his work. A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms: The Hedge Knight premieres sometime in 2025, while House of the Dragon Season 3 is currently in production. Martin’s books are available now in print, digital and audiobook formats.