George R. R. Martin, the author of “A Song of Ice and Fire“, which served as the basis for the successful series “Game of Thrones“, published an update on his blog about a planned spin-off series. He announced that it is supposed to be entirely different than originally intended.
On December 31, 2023, George R. R. Martin published a blog post in which he raved about the animated series Blue Eye Samurai , which in the past has been highly praised by viewers and critics alike.
In this context, he also announced news about the planned spin-off series Nine Voyages. This has been completely re-planned – probably due to high production costs.
Here you can see a trailer for the first season of Game of Thrones, where it all began:
“There is a whole world out there“
What will Nine Voyages be about? The series Nine Voyages will revolve around Corlys Velaryon aka the Sea Snake and showcase his legendary voyages, as the author revealed.
Why were the old plans for the spin-off discarded? The series was actually supposed to be a live-action adaptation. However, Martin explained the reason for discarding the old plans and why they decided to go for the animation style instead.
It seems that the high costs of a live-action implementation were simply too high to tell the story with real sets.
[… ] Due to budget constraints, a live-action version would likely have become unaffordable, especially since half the series takes place at sea and a different harbor has to be created every week, from Driftmark to Lys to the Basilisk Isles, from Volantis to Qarth and… well, and so on.
There is a whole world out there. And we have a much better chance of showing it with animation.
George R.R. Martin, Source: georgerrmartin.com
George R.R. Martin fully supports the decision to make Nine Voyages an animated series, as he noted.
More information is already available about the spin-off series Knight of the Seven Kingdoms. You can find out more here with our colleagues from Moviepilot.
What other animated series about Game of Thrones are planned? In addition to Nine Voyages, two more animated series set in the well-known fantasy universe are in development. What the other two series projects will be about is still unknown.
So far, however, the series have not yet received official approval. Therefore, it can still happen that the projects may be shelved before we get to see them.
Anyone who has not seen the spin-off House of the Dragon can do so completely for free right now. Where and how to do that can be read here:
How you can watch the spin-off of Game of Thrones for free in German
