HBO’s programming president has given away info on when we may see a planned Game of Thrones prequel (or prequels), and season 8.

While chatting with Entertainment Weekly, HBO’s programming president Casey Bloys had plenty to say about the planned Game of Thrones prequel.

Multiple spin-offs from the George R.R. Martin-built universe are currently in development. Bloys, however, was keen to point out that not all of them are nailed-on to make it into production. Nor is the network in any kind of rush.

He described work on the prequel series as “really embryonic”, inasmuch as he hasn’t even seen outlines of the shows yet. He was also keen to add that, just because there are multiple shows in development, that doesn’t mean we’re going to see them all.

How many Game of Thrones prequels will we see? 

“Everybody said, ‘there are four spinoffs’ and they assume that means each one is happening and we’re going to have a new Game of Thrones show per quarter. That’s not what’s going on. The idea is not to do four shows… Our No. 1 goal is the seventh season this summer and getting the eighth season written and aired.

“The nice thing is George has created an entire universe. The fact that there’s enough material to even contemplate making different prequels is crazy when you think about it.

“If you only developed one, everything would rest on that one shot. It’s such a special show. I want to make sure that [any prequel] feels worthy. We have some amazing writers who want to take a shot at this. They’re also looking at different times in the universe and all will have different feels. This increases our odds of finding one that’s unique.”

When will we see a Game of Thrones prequel? 

In terms of when we can expect to see any new Game of Thrones show outside of the main production, Bloys was a little coy.

“You’re not going to see a situation where the next show in the Thrones universe launches off the back of this one… If any of these scripts come to pass, you’re not going to see anything air anytime close to the season 8 finale”

That means that the earliest we can expect to see anything come to fruition from the multiple concepts being worked on is after the in-development season 8, of the show.

It would also appear that Showrunners David Benioff and Dan Weiss will be distinctly hands-off with regards to any further visits to Westeros.

“By the time the final season airs,” Bloys says, “Dan and David will have been at this for 12 years. They didn’t go and do movies in between seasons, they didn’t set anything else up, they put everything — and are putting everything — into this show…

“In conversations with them, they feel if their name is on the prequels — even in a passive way — it conveys some sort of expectation or responsibility. They want to enjoy the show as fans and don’t want to worry about the scripts or production issues.”

Will George R.R. Martin be involved? 

In terms of the prequels, Bloys says “It varies project by project” regarding how writers collaborate with the man behind the Game of Thrones novels.

“Some like to collaborate, some look at the source material and do their own thing. There’s no one way, but in all cases, George will be reading the scripts and weighing in.”

Will any of the current show’s characters be involved? 

The answer to this from Bloys was a simple “Nope.”

So there.

You can see the trailer for the new series of Game of Thrones, which kicks of on Sky Atlantic in mid-July, here.

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