After it was announced that HBO is considering either four or five Game of Thrones prequels, depending on who you believe, the network made it very clear that showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss would not be involved.
“When they’re done, they don’t want to feel any sense of responsibility or obligation,” said president of programming Casey Bloys, “and they said to me they hope to watch whatever spin-off they have purely as a fan, sitting at home, not overseas working on a production. So I understand that they need a clean break.” They’re getting a clean break from Westeros, but not HBO.
It was announced on Wednesday that Benioff and Weiss have lined up their post-Game of Thrones series: Confederate. According to the Hollywood Reporter, the pair will executive produce the drama, which “chronicles the events leading to the third American Civil War. The series takes place in an alternate timeline, where the southern states have successfully seceded from the Union, giving rise to a nation in which slavery remains legal and has evolved into a modern institution. The story follows a broad swath of characters on both sides of the Mason-Dixon Demilitarized Zone – freedom fighters, slave hunters, politicians, abolitionists, journalists, the executives of a slave-holding conglomerate, and the families of people in their thrall.” (It’s a tricky premise that that needs to be handled, let’s say, delicately.)
Benioff and Weiss, who originally conceived of the idea as a feature film, will also serve as showrunners and writers. “There won’t be dragons or White Walkers in this series,” they said, “but we are creating a world.” Production will begin once Game of Thrones is over (nooooooo) in either 2018 or 2019.
(Via the Hollywood Reporter)
