Earlier this year, we got confirmation that HBO's planned Game of Thrones sequel series following the continuing adventures of Jon Snow - real name Aegon Targaryen - had been shelved.
Actor Kit Harington, who was set to reprise his role as the honourable "bastard" of Winterfell turned rightful heir to the Iron Throne, revealed that the show will not be moving forward while speaking to Screen Rant.
“Currently, it’s off the table because we all couldn’t find the right story to tell that we were all excited about enough," Harington explained. "So, we decided to lay down tools with it for the time being. There may be a time in the future where we return to it, but at the moment, no. It’s firmly on the shelf.”
Though a creative team was never made public, A Song of Ice and Fire saga writer George R.R. Martin revealed that the project did have writers and a showrunner attached on his personal blog last year.
“Yes, it was Kit Harington who brought the idea to us. I cannot tell you the names of the writers/ showrunners, since that has not been cleared for release yet… but Kit brought them in too, his own team, and they are terrific.”
Fans of the character were understandably disappointed by this development, but HBO boss Casey Bloys has now indicated that there might still be some hope for the series after all.
“Maybe we’ll try again,” Bloys said during a press preview event for HBO and Max’s upcoming 2025 slate. “So far [House of the Dragon and A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms] are the only ones that we felt could go the distance. I mean, practically speaking, you don’t want to overdo any anything. There’s no blinking green lights on any other ones. At the moment, we take our time with them, with the development, and only do them when we can serve it.”
Though the final season of Game of Thrones does have its share of defenders, it was widely considered to be a disappointing swansong for the mega-popular fantasy drama series. The final two episodes, in particular, came in for a lot of backlash thanks to some highly controversial creative decisions, one of which saw fan-favorite Daenerys Targaryen (Emilia Clarke) "break bad" by laying waste to King's Landing and the thousands of innocent people who lived there just so she could take her revenge on Cersi Lannister (Lena Headey).
Then, in the series finale, Jon Snow killed his lover/aunt when he realized that she'd succumbed to madness. He admitted his crime, but escaped execution and was sent back to The Wall. The last time we saw Jon, he was leading the remaining members of the Night's Watch beyond the Wall into Wildling territory.