With House of the Dragon hitting HBO in August, Game of Thrones fans will soon be able to enjoy a new-but-still-similar dragon-singed journey into this fantasy universe based on the works of George R.R. Martin. And while we’ve long known it isn’t the only spinoff and/or prequel in the works at the premium cable network, fans were only more recently privy to reports about an official sequel series centering on Kit Harington’s Jon Snow. Now, Martin himself has confirmed that news with his rabid followers, while also sharing a couple of details behind the project.
Taking to his long-standing blog, where the renowned author has made many announcements in the past, George R.R. Martin clarified comments he made about the respective potential success of both House of the Dragon and Prime Video’s Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, as well as celebrating the Season 2 renewal of AMC’s Dark Winds, which he’s an executive producer on. He even divulged that he’d been writing some Tyrion-based material for the long-awaited Winds of Winter novel. But before all that, he addressed the direwolf in the room by saying what he could about the Jon Snow sequel, so let’s see what he had to offer.
The Game Of Thrones Sequel Has A Surprisingly Non-Cryptic Working Title
To kick things off, George R.R. Martin reflected on the business of his career affecting the regularity of blog updates, and shared that he'd been "deluged" with requests for comments about the Jon Snow spinoff. Here's how the Game of Thrones author opened things up:
Yes, there is a Jon Snow show in development. . . . Our working title for the show is SNOW.
Nothing too complicated about that, and while the the title is likely to change at some point in the development process, it wouldn't be so surprising if Snow became the show's official name down the line, with or without Game of Thrones in front. It'd obviously play into both the character's name and the Winter/Ice motif without much effort.
The Jon Snow Project Isn't Actually A New Development
Even though Game of Thrones fans only started talking about a possible return for Kit Harington's Jon Snow in mid-June, the project has apparently been in the works for longer than one might expect. While addressing the other in-development dramas, Martin said:
There are four live-action successor shows in development at HBO. Word got out about three of them some time ago. . . . SNOW has been in development almost as long as the other three, but for whatever reason it was never announced and it never leaked… until now.
It's easy to think that everything gets leaked early in the entertainment world these days, the fact that fans were kept out in the cold on Snow's existence would suggest otherwise. (As would Obi-Wan Kenobi's mega-cameo in its Season 1 finale.) Granted, the information still did leak early, which Martin addresses directly in his blog post, but that it stayed under wraps for as long as it did is still impressive.
Snow Has A Creative Team Already, And Kit Harington Is The One Making It All Happen
On Wednesday, June 22, Game of Thrones vet Emilia Clarke spoke with the BBC and dropped the tidbit that Kit Harington himself had the idea for the Jon Snow sequel project. And in his blog post, George R.R. Martin confirms that was legit info, and that Harington is responsible for bringing the creative team together. In his words:
It seems as though Emilia Clarke has already mentioned that SNOW was Kit’s idea in a recent interview. So that part is out. Yes, it was Kit Harrington 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. Various rumors are floating around about my involvement, or lack of same. I am involved, just as I am with THE HEDGE KNIGHT and THE SEA SNAKE and TEN THOUSAND SHIPS, and all the animated shows. Kit’s team have visited me here in Santa Fe and worked with me and my own team of brilliant, talented writer/ consultants to hammer out the show.
While legal issues kept Martin from divulging who has been tapped as the showrunners and writers for the tentatively titled Snow, it's still pretty awesome that he was able to share the update that people are already in place to bring things together in the scripting stage. Usually a project of his magnitude goes through months of public speculation before locking down core storytellers. Hopefully that means more official announcements are just around the corner, though that could still mean several years in George R.R. Martin-speak.
All episodes of Game of Thrones are available to stream with an HBO Max subscription, and be sure to check out our 2022 TV premiere schedule to see when and where all the newest shows are popping up.
