No matter who ends up on the Iron Throne when all is said and done, all eyes will be on HBO and if the premium cabler will find a way to have Game of Thrones soldier on. The massive HBO fantasy franchise — its most watched show ever — is set for two more shortened seasons before concluding the stories of Jon Snow, Daenerys Targaryen, and the others warring for power and freedom throughout the Seven Kingdoms. But when Game of Thrones ends, there's still more story to tell within the world of Westeros, according to HBO programming president Casey Bloys.
"In a perfect world, 'Game of Thrones' would keep going and we wouldn't have to deal with any of this," HBO programming president Casey Bloys said about the idea of future follow-ups to the fantasy drama. "There are so many properties and areas to go to," Bloys said. "For us, it's about finding the right take with the right writer."
As it stands, however, Game of Thrones showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss will not be those writers. Both Benioff and Weiss made their stance clear at the Emmys this month, when asked if they would be interested in running the next inevitable stage of the Game of Thrones franchise. "You might want to ask George [R.R. Martin] about that. It's a great world George created and a very rich world," said Benoiff. "I'm sure there will be other series set in Westeros, but for us this is it." Bloys, however, is more optimistic that Benioff and Weiss might whistle a different tune when the time comes for more Thrones.
Until the dust (or the snowflakes, because you know, winter is coming and all that) settles on GoT, it's too early to know what form a prequel or follow-up would take. For his part, Martin, the author of the Song of Ice and Fire novels on which Thrones is based, has stressed that there's no shortage of material to mine for further television exploration of his expansive fantasy universe. "I do have thousands of pages of fake history of everything that led up to Game of Thrones," Martin said at the Emmys. "So there's a wealth of material there and I'm still writing more."
