HBO doesn’t need Game of Thrones to survive — Westworld is a certified hit; Big Little Lies has won all the awards; and Veep, Silicon Valley, and Insecure form a solid comedy block — but they sure like having it around. But television’s biggest hit won’t be back until 2019. The year off is for co-showrunners David Benioff and Dan Weiss to “take the time they need to do the show at its highest level of quality,” according to programming president Casey Bloys.
While speaking at the Television Critics Association’s winter press tour on Thursday, Bloys, who believes fans will be “very, very happy” with the final season, also gave an update on the five Game of Thrones prequels HBO has in development. “They’re moving along,” he said. “We have some really talented writers working on them. The one thing I will tell you… any sort of pilot-to-series [order], there’s not going to be anything on our air for a least a year after Game of Thrones airs. We’re not using the final season to launch a new show or anything like that. There’s going to be a separation between the two.”
So: no Game of Thrones until 2019; no Game of Thrones prequels until 2020, at the earliest; no Game of Thrones pulling a Roseanne ever. “This story, A Song of Fire and Ice, is done,” Bloys said. “There’s no revival, reboot, spinoff talk.” Enjoy Davos while you can — we only have him for six more episodes.
(Via Entertainment Weekly)
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