When Game of Thrones ended, HBO did something it had never done before: created a sequel series. Or rather a prequel series: House of the Dragon, which aired its first season in 2022, is set over 100 years before Ned Stark and Tyrion Lannister and pretty much everyone else from the original series was born. It was a hit, and HBO has since ordered another prequel show: A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms.
And those were only two of the many Game of Thrones spinoff ideas that HBO at one point considered. One idea that’s gotten a lot of attention is a sequel series about Jon Snow. This idea, which was brought to HBO by Jon Snow actor Kit Harinton, would follow up with Jon after the end of Game of Thrones. Did he stay on the Wall? Did he go to live with the wildlings? Did he try to knock his cousin Bran Stark off the Iron Throne? Perhaps we’ll find out!
But it doesn’t sound like we’ll find out anytime soon. In November, Harington was a guest at London Comic Con Winter. According to one fan on Twitter — jem met kit — he talked a bit about the Jon Snow show. “Kit has said the snow show is on ice and he cant currently seeing it going anywhere and it’s not happening right now, but he’s open to it in the future but not right now,” Jem wrote. “He says it was talked through but currently it’s not happening but maybe in the future,” she added later.
Why might HBO not want to move forward with a Jon Snow show?
Now, it’s true that this is an unconfirmed report; we don’t have video from the event of Harington saying this, nor was it covered by a journalistic outlet on the scene. But Jem does have pictures of herself posing with Harington around the time of the con, so I see no reason we can’t at least talk about it.
Plus, I think the report has the ring of truth. I know a lot of fans are eager to see their favorite Game of Thrones characters onscreen again, but HBO has been very cautious about how often it visits the spinoff well. It even shot a pilot for a Game of Thrones prequel called Blood Moon that it ended up canceling because the decision-makers didn’t think it was good enough. Game of Thrones was a big success and HBO wants to milk that, but they have high standards. They’re not just going to make a spinoff because they can.
They also don’t want to make too many Game of Thrones spinoffs at once. Speaking to press a while back, HBO CEO Casey Bloys outlined the studios’ strategy. “[I]f you let quality be your guide… that’s a pretty good way to balance it,” he said. “I think not starting with a preset, ‘We need five tentpoles’… any sort of prescribed amount to fill, and just focusing on quality is a good way to do it.” He also knocked Marvel Studios for letting their spinoffs get a little out of control. “I think tentpole fatigue comes from when you’re telling the same story over and over within the same universe,” Bloys said. “I think unfortunately Marvel, as good as their shows are, there’s probably been a lot of them.”
So HBO wants to make sure that any Game of Thrones spinoff it puts out meets a high standard of quality, and it doesn’t want to make too many lest it dilute the Game of Thrones brand like Marvel has done with its gaggle of superhero TV shows. In this context, it makes sense why HBO may want to stop with the two Game of Thrones spinoff shows it already has. That doesn’t mean a Jon Snow show couldn’t happen sometime in the future, but best to let fans sit a while with what they’ve got.
