Why ‘Game Of Thrones’ Spinoffs Might Not Be A Success

“Game Of Thrones” has just ended its eight-season run, but HBO is already hard at work on its spinoffs. While the streaming network execs are hopeful that the spinoffs to the award-winning show will be as successful as the original series, series creator and novelist George R.R. Martin thinks otherwise.

In a recent statement, Martin set the record straight about what he thinks about the upcoming “Game Of Thrones” spinoffs, saying he’s not certain that any spinoff can come close to the success achieved by the original series. “The scale of ‘Game Of Thrones’ success has — reaching all over the world and invading the culture to such an extent — it’s not something anyone could ever anticipate, not something I expect to ever experience again,” he said.

Martin went on to talk about the general response of fans to the final season of the series and said that fandoms these days are more toxic than they have ever been. “The Internet is toxic in a way that old fanzine culture and fandoms — comic fans, science fiction fans — in those days, was not,” he said. According to the author, while disagreements and feuds also happened before, they’re nothing like the madness that is now found on the internet.

Previously, HBO programming exec Casey Bloys revealed that none of the spinoff series will be a sequel. “I do want this show — this ‘Game of Thrones,’ Dan and David’s show — to be its own thing,” he said.

“I don’t want to take characters from this world that they did beautifully and put them off into another world with someone else creating it,” he added. According to Bloys, redoing the same show with a sequel or picking up any of the characters from the original series will not make sense if they want to try to do things that feel distinct.

“Game Of Thrones” premiered on HBO in 2011 and left a lasting impression on the TV landscape, raising the bar for future TV series. Since its premiere, the fanbase and viewership of the series have grown by millions, making it one of the biggest epic fantasy series to have ever hit television. The spinoff series that is closest to getting off the ground is currently being helmed by Jane Goldman. Production on the series started in Belfast, Ireland, in May.