“None of them have been greenlit yet, but I think we are getting close to taking the next step with a couple of them.”

George R.R. Martin has news about the expanding world of Westeros.

In a blog post published on Sunday, the Song of Ice and Fire author offered an update regarding the many Game of Thrones-based TV series in the works — while also recommending fans watch one of his favorite shows of 2023. After starting his post by professing his love for Blue Eye Samurai, the Netflix series about a master swordsman on a warpath for vengeance, Martin opened up about his own animated aspirations.

“As it happens, HBO and I have our own animated projects, set in the world of A Song of Ice and Fire,” Martin explained. “None of them have been greenlit yet, but I think we are getting close to taking the next step with a couple of them.”

He continued, “When this last round of development started a few years back, we had four ideas for animated shows, with some great talents attached. Writers rooms and summits, outline and scripts followed in due course… but, alas, two of the original projects were subsequently shelved.”

Martin said that while two of the original animated projects are still being developed, another previously announced project has moved from live action to animation: the House of the Dragon prequel Nine Voyages. The series is set to follow the Sea Snake Corlys Velaryon (played in House of the Dragon by Steve Toussaint) as he embarks on his legendary adventure across Essos.

The move to animation is one that Martin says he fully supports.

He explained, “Budgetary constraints would likely have made a live-action version prohibitively expensive, what with half the show taking place at sea, and the necessity of creating a different port every week, from Driftmark to Lys to the Basilisk Isles to Volantis to Qarth to… well, on and on and on.  There’s a whole world out there. And we have a lot better chance of showing it all with animation. So we now have three animated projects underway.”

In the author’s own words, “nothing is certain in Hollywood,” but he adds that if the animated projects do see the light of day, “I hope we can make them as good as gorgeous and gripping as  Blue Eye Samurai. We will for damn sure try.”

As was previously reported, the pilot script for the Sea Snake series hails from The Mentalist and Rome creator Bruno Heller. And while Toussaint likely won’t reprise his role for the prequel saga, since it follows a much younger version of his character, the actor told EW in July 2022 that he would love to be involved.

“If I’m lucky, I might say to them, ‘Let me just be at the beginning [of the show] sitting with a book saying, ‘Let me talk about my life,'” Toussaint said. “That’ll be me petitioning. But no, all you can hope for is that what I do is good enough and vivid enough and interesting enough for people to want to know, how did that person get there? And then that show, whatever that is, whenever that happens, it has a life of its own for whoever the lucky guy is that plays it.”

Outside of the Sea Snake spinoff, HBO has confirmed that the next Thrones spinoff will be A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms: The Hedge Knight, following the adventures of Ser Duncan the Tall, and his squire, Egg, a century before the events of the original eight-season saga. Other stories set in Westeros and beyond are also in contention for a full series order, including the Kit Harington–led Jon Snow spinoff and a prequel about Aegon Targaryen conquering Westeros.