House Of The Dragon spin-off pivots to animation

There’s nothing modern Hollywood loves more than a franchise, and Game Of Thrones—despite a shaky dismount on the flagship series—has proved to have some staying power with the prequel House Of The Dragon. A few other projects have cycled in and out of development, most notably a Jon Snow spin-off starring Kit Harrington that’s still in the works. But creator George R.R. Martin has big dreams for his fantasy universe, which involve expanding beyond books and live-action into other mediums, like animation.

An animated GoT has been in the mix for a while, but in a new blog post, Martin says that they’re “getting close to taking the next step with a couple of” these ideas, though nothing has yet been greenlit. Of four original animated concepts, two have been shelved (with the possibility to return, maybe in graphic novel form), while two continue to be developed. Plus, the previously announced Sea Snake/Nine Voyages show has become an animated project, Martin announced in the blog.

“Budgetary constraints would likely have made a live-action version prohibitively expensive, what with half the show taking place at sea, and the necessity of creating a different port every week, from Driftmark to Lys to the Basilisk Isles to Volantis to Qarth to… well, on and on and on,” the author wrote. “There’s a whole world out there. And we have a lot better chance of showing it all with animation. So we now have three animated projects underway.”

The Sea Snake is about Lord Corlys Velaryon, a character introduced on-screen in House Of The Dragon. The prequel to the prequel series is set to follow the famed ocean voyages that made Corlys a Westerosi legend. Steve Toussaint, who played the character on House Of The Dragon, told Entertainment Weekly that “It’ll be some younger, prettier guy playing” the role in the prequel, though he wanted to petition to “be at the beginning [of the show] sitting with a book saying, ‘Let me talk about my life.’” Now that the show has moved to animation, there’s even more wiggle room for Toussaint to be involved, if he should so desire.

However, as Martin pointed out in his blog, there’s “no way to know” if any of these projects will make it to air, as “Nothing is certain in Hollywood.” However, if they do get the green light, he hopes to make the series “as good as gorgeous and gripping” as one of his favorite new shows, Blue Eye Samurai: “We will for damn sure try,” Martin promised.