Game of Thrones spin-off plans are still far in the future

Will there be a demand for a Game of Thrones spin-off eventually at HBO? You have to think so, but it’s not happening anytime soon. As a matter of fact, it’s probably not happening until either 2019 or 2020, at the earliest.

While at the TCA Summer Press Tour today, network programming head Casey Bloys made the following clear on the subject of how they are pursuing a prequel to the long-running show — which, for the record, they are banking on to such an extent that they have multiple different ideas in development:

“The No. 1 priority in all of this is the final season of Game of Thrones. I don’t want to do anything with a spin-off or anything that detracts or distracts from that. That season will happen and my guess is it would be at least a year before you saw anything else. What I don’t want is the attention to be drawn from the final season, which I think is going to be epic and amazing and somehow have the distraction of a new Game of Thrones airing right after that. It’s best to separate it and that’s what we’ll do.”

There was a wait of about a year and a half between the end of Breaking Bad and the start of Better Call Saul, and a similar timeline here makes some sense. Therefore, if the final six Game of Thrones episodes air either in late 2018 or early 2019 (the indication is that it’s going to take some time to make them), it’s going to be 2020 before the show’s on the air. We’re fine with that. The thing that matters most after that is making sure that you’ve got the right idea, and that you have the right cast and crew to make it work. For HBO, patience is a virtue.

In a way, there’s an interesting discussion to have about a Game of Thrones spin-off in the context of what happened with the first two seasons of True Detective. They were ordered far too close to each other, and the second season felt rushed and nowhere near as good. Season 3 was almost confirmed today at HBO, and one of the reasons that we feel confident that it may be great is because the network’s actually giving it time so that it can be great. That’s far better than jumping the gun and just ordering it because you’re afraid that the momentum for the show is somehow going to start slowing down.

There are still five more episodes to go of Game of Thrones season 7; at that point, we’ll think about season 8, and then the spin-off after that.

Want some other news when it comes to Game of Thrones?

Earlier today, we discussed further some of the latest photos from Sunday night’s new episode! Check it out over here — not only do we share the photos, but we also discuss further the reunion between Daenerys and Jon Snow. (Photo: HBO.)