Although Game of Thrones may not have had the most graceful of landings and many fans are still feeling particularly salty about how it concluded, HBO still remains eager to return to the world of Westeros. Live-action prequel series House of the Dragon is slated to kick off production this spring and it was also recently revealed that a Dunk and Egg prequel series is also in the works, but now THR has reported that the next Game of Thrones series might just be animated.
Nothing is official at this time, but the outlet has reported that an animated Game of Thrones drama series is in the early stages of development, but instead of HBO, this series would be headed for HBO Max. Again, it's still early days, but THR says that HBO's head of drama Francesca Oris and her group are working directly with franchise creator George R.R. Martin on "building out the sprawling Game of Thrones world." There's no deals in place yet (and THR mentions that there are no deals in place for the Dunk and Egg series either) but there's certainly plenty of room in Martin's Game of Thrones mythology for another series, and an animated take on Westeros might be an interesting hook should it come to fruition.
No matter what happens, our next journey to Westeros will come with House of the Dragon, which will be set 300 years before Game of Thrones based upon George R.R. Martin's Fire & Blood, a Targaryen history book which chronicles the history of House Targaryen, starting off with "Aegon the Conqueror, creator of the Iron Throne, and [going on] to recount the generations of Targaryens who fought to hold the throne, all the way up to the civil war, known as the Dance of the Dragons, that nearly tore their dynasty apart." The series is slated to star Paddy Considine (The Outsider) as King Viserys Targaryen, Matt Smith (The Crown) as Prince Daemon Targaryen, Emma D'Arcy (Wanderlust) as Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen, and Olivia Cooke (Sound of Metal) as Alicent Hightower.