Game of Thrones (franchise)

Game of Thrones (2011–2019)

Game of Thrones is roughly based on the storylines of the A Song of Ice and Fire book series by George R. R. Martin, set in the fictional Seven Kingdoms of Westeros and the continent of Essos.^[10] The series began development in January 2007.^[10] HBO acquired the television rights to the novels, with David Benioff and D. B. Weiss as the series' executive producers and Martin as a co-executive producer. The intention was for each novel to yield a season's worth of episodes.^[10] For filming, the show was shot in multiple countries: United Kingdom, Canada, Croatia, Iceland, Malta, Morocco, and Spain.^[11] Nina Gold and Robert Sterne were the series' primary casting directors.^[12] Through a process of auditions and readings, the main cast was assembled. The only exceptions were Peter Dinklage and Sean Bean, whom the writers wanted from the start; they were announced as joining the pilot in 2009.^[13] The series premiered on April 17, 2011.^[14] A critical and commercial success, it ran for eight seasons, concluding in 2019.^[15]

Game of Thrones was considered a ratings success for HBO throughout all eight seasons.^[16][17] The season five episode "The House of Black and White" was simulcasted in 173 countries, becoming the "largest TV drama telecast" according to Guinness World Records.^[18] It also pulled in an average of 46 million viewers across its eighth and final season in 2019, setting the record for the most-watched show on HBO.^[19] The show's success has been credited with an increase in the fantasy genre's popularity.^[20] The show's success led to the commissioning of several fantasy television series, including The Wheel of Time and The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power by Amazon Studios.^[21] According to Neil Gaiman, whose novels Good Omens and American Gods were adapted for television, Game of Thrones helped to change attitudes towards fantasy on television, but mainly it made big budgets for fantasy series more acceptable.^[22]

House of the Dragon (2022–present)

In 2015, with Game of Thrones still in production, HBO executives approached Martin regarding possible successors or spin-offs to the series.^[28] In November 2018, Martin stated that a "potential spin-off series would be solidly based on material in Fire & Blood."^[29] Game of Thrones creators Benioff and Weiss stated they wanted to "move on" from the franchise and declined involvement in subsequent projects.^[30] By September 2019, a Game of Thrones prequel series from Martin and Condal that "tracks the beginning of the end for House Targaryen" was close to receiving a pilot order from HBO.^[31] In October 2019, House of the Dragon was given a straight-to-series order.^[32] Condal and Sapochnik, who won an Emmy Award for directing the episode "Battle of the Bastards", were selected to serve as showrunners.^[33]

House of the Dragon serves as a prequel to the television series Game of Thrones and is the second television series in the franchise. It is based on Martin's 2018 novel Fire & Blood. The series is set two hundred years before the events of Game of Thrones and chronicles the events leading up to the House Targaryen civil war, known as the "Dance of the Dragons", and the war itself. The first season of the series premiered in 2022 and consists of ten episodes.^[34]

A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms (2026–present)

In February 2013, Martin commented that he had been in discussions with HBO regarding a potential adaptation of his Dunk and Egg novellas.^[35] In March 2014, Martin expressed interest in adapting his Dunk and Egg stories for the screen, suggesting that they could serve as the basis for a film.^[36] In July 2015, HBO programming president Michael Lombardo remarked that there was "enormous storytelling to be mined" in a prequel to Game of Thrones.^[37] A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms series received an official order from HBO in April 2023.^[38] By then, Ira Parker, a writer on the first season of House of the Dragon, had already written the script for a pilot episode.^[39] The first season of the series premiered in 2026 and consisted of six episodes.^[40] Peter Claffey was cast as Ser Duncan the Tall and Dexter Sol Ansell as Egg.^[41]

Reception

Accolades

Main articles: List of awards and nominations received by Game of Thrones and List of awards and nominations received by House of the Dragon

Game of Thrones has won numerous awards throughout its run, including 59 Emmy Awards, eight Screen Actors Guild Awards, and a Peabody Award.^[82] It holds the record for total Emmy Award wins for a scripted television series and for most Emmy nominations for a drama series, with 161.^[83] In 2013, the Writers Guild of America listed Game of Thrones as the 40th best written series in television history.^[84] In 2015, The Hollywood Reporter placed it at number four on their best TV shows ever list,^[85] while in 2016 the series was placed seventh on Empire's "The 50 best TV shows ever".^[86] The same year, Rolling Stone named it the twelfth "greatest TV Show of all time".^[87] In 2023, Variety ranked Game of Thrones No. 21 on its list of the 100 greatest TV shows of all time.^[88]

House of the Dragon received nine Primetime Emmy Awards nominations in 2023, including Outstanding Drama Series, winning one for Outstanding Fantasy/Sci-Fi Costumes.^[89][90] The series won the Golden Globe Award Best Television Series – Drama in 2023, while Emma D'Arcy earned two Best Actress in a Television Series – Drama nominations in 2023 and 2025.^[91][92] Other nominations include three Critics' Choice Awards,^[93] and two Screen Actors Guild Awards.^[94][95]

Further spin-offs

In 2021, three spin-off shows were announced to be in development at HBO. They include Nine Voyages, 10,000 Ships, and Flea Bottom.^[133] Nine Voyages was initially developed as a live-action series, but in December 2023, Martin confirmed on his blog that it has shifted into animation.^[134] Genndy Tartakovsky, best known for Dexter's Laboratory, Samurai Jack, and Star Wars: Clone Wars, was reportedly attached to the project.^[135] 10,000 Ships, a spin-off about the warrior queen Princess Nymeria, will be set 1,000 years before the events of Game of Thrones.^[136] In an August 2022 interview with The New York Times, Martin described it as "an 'Odyssey'-like epic" and in a 2024 blog post, he announced that Pulitzer-winning playwright Eboni Booth was writing the pilot.^[136] On the other hand, Flea Bottom, a project based on the infamous King’s Landing slum, was reportedly cancelled.^[137] An additional animated spin-off show was announced on July 2021, set in The Golden Empire of Yi Ti, a region in the continent of Essos. The society is considered one of the oldest and most advanced in Martin’s fantasy realm and is inspired by Imperial China.^[137]

In June 2022, it was reported that a Jon Snow sequel series with Kit Harington to reprise his role was in early development at HBO.^[138] The working title was Snow and Martin confirmed his involvement with the project and that Harington initiated the idea.^[139] In April 2024, Harington stated the show had been shelved because they could not find a story that excited them enough.^[140] In 2026, however, the project was revived with Drops of God writer Quoc Dang Tran reportedly working on the potential sequel.^[141] The project was described as being in "very early development" and may not happen at all, as The Hollywood Reporter reports that HBO is "keenly aware of how high the bar of execution needs to be".^[134]

Multiple ideas for successor series have not continued into production. In 2018, HBO announced a pilot order for a show with the working title of Bloodmoon, said to focus on the “Age of Heroes” and the first-ever battle between men and White Walkers.^[142] Jane Goldman, who worked on Kick-Ass (2010) and Kingsman: The Secret Service (2014), served as both the principal writer and showrunner.^[143] Naomi Watts and Josh Whitehouse were announced as co-leads in October 2018.^[144][145] A pilot episode was reportedly shot in 2019 for $30 million to $35 million. HBO ultimately scrapped the project stating that it "required a lot more invention" and "didn’t have that depth and richness that the original series’ pilot did".^[143][146] Other pitches at HBO including a series about the fabled Seven Gods as mortals who had adventures then came to be worshipped as gods and a series about the Doom of Valyria, written by Max Borenstein, were also scrapped.^[143]

Television specials

Game of Thrones: Aegon's Conquest

On April 14, 2026, Warner Bros. announced at CinemaCon in Las Vegas that a feature film about Aegon's Conquest is in the works, based on the first chapters of Martin's Fire & Blood. The film is set to be written by Beau Willimon and is expected to be released in 2027 or later.^[169] The working title Game of Thrones: Aegon's Conquest was also confirmed.^[170] This will serve as the franchise's first-ever big-screen entry.^[170]

Game of Thrones: The Mad King

A stage play called Game of Thrones: The Mad King by the Royal Shakespeare Company, in partnership with Warner Bros. Theatre Ventures, had its world premiere on August 8, 2026 at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon, England.^[175] The play is set just before the events in Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire novels and will follow the great houses of Westeros during the reign of the Mad King Aerys.^[176] It is written by Duncan Macmillan and directed by Dominic Cooke.^[176] In September 2026, the Royal Shakespeare Company, along with George R. R. Martin, announced that the stage play will open in London in 2027.^[174]

The stage play was strongly praised by the critics, especially the production.^[177][178] Sarah Crompton of WhatsOnStage gave the play five stars stating that it is "an extraordinary moment of theatre: a procession of rich coloured silks and fluttering banners, with kings and princes riding life sized armoured horses, heads tossing as they move, a scrappy dog silhouetted barking at the scene".^[177] Mark Lawson of The Guardian wrote, "This prequel to the TV series has one joust after another, spectacular stagecraft and plenty of modern resonance".^[178] Chris McPherson from Collider agreed saying, "The technical achievement is frequently jaw-dropping (...) The opening Targaryen procession will live long in the memory, as they cross the stage on their horses with ominous music playing".^[179] Alice Saville of The Independent rated the play four out of five stars and wrote, "As well as drawing on the ancient Classics, this story of ambitious, vengeful kings has serious shades of Shakespeare – with added dragons. It feels right on this in-the-round, Elizabethan-inspired stage".^[180]

However, not all aspects of the play were positively received. Despite giving the play four stars, Dominic Cavendish of The Telegraph said, "At almost four hours, it’s a long evening, sometimes too dense with detail, and it lacks the grit and gore (not to mention the nudity) of the TV series".^[181] The sentiment on the play's length was shared by McPherson stating, "It's an odd, paradoxical conundrum because, at approximately four hours, including an interval, The Mad King is too long and yet it feels rushed in that second half".^[179] In a scathing review by The Times, Clive Davis gave the play three stars and wrote, "This prequel to a blood-soaked dynastic saga wanders on for so long that it makes Christopher Nolan’s journey into Greek mythology seem a model of understatement (...) only the most dedicated of [the fans] will have the energy for this marathon".^[182]

Live Concert

A concert tour, called Game of Thrones Live Concert Experience featuring the music of Game of Thrones took place in 2017.^[202] The tour involved an 80-piece orchestra, a choir, and seven custom 360-degree stages. Instruments were specially created for the tour, such as a 12-foot wildling horn played during the wildling attack on the Wall section.^[203][204] A tour was also arranged for cities in Europe and North America in 2018, with new music from season 7 added.^[205] In an interview, Djawadi talked about the tour, saying, "I'm going through the music to adapt it more for a live performance, and I might have a vocalist on a piece that didn't have one before, or lengthen another piece, I'm not bound to the picture anymore, so I can let the music tell its own story, and be creative about it."^[206]

The concert received positive reviews from the critics. Kim Renfro of Business Insider said, "The sequence of music chosen by Djawadi is not only chronologically matched with the show's seasons, but it was meant to force fans to relive both the best and worst moments of their favorite characters' stories".^[207] The Guardian gave a four out of five stars rating and wrote, "The ambitious event gives fans a musical tour though classic moments from the series and offers a few visual flourishes along the way".^[208] Spencer Kornhaber from The Atlantic praised the show format stating, "The action set pieces are served best by the concert’s visual and musical remixing".^[209] Martinez Alanna of Observer expressed that the concert is "a gift to fans" and "a raucous celebration of the show’s greatest moments and its MVP: the music". She further wrote, "Take away the Iron Throne, Jon Snow’s silky locks of shoulder length hair and dragons and you’re left with a spectacular musical score that rivals the work of legendary composers John Williams, Max Steiner and Danny Elfman".^[210]

Tie-ins

Source material

Various adaptations in the franchise originated with the A Song of Ice and Fire novel series and other related works set in the same world by George R. R. Martin. As of 2026, the novel series reportedly sold 100 million copies, making it among the best-selling book series of all time.^[225] Several prequels, companion books, and comic book adaptations were subsequently published.^[226][227]

A Song of Ice and Fire novels (1996–present)

Main article: A Song of Ice and Fire

More information Title, Pages ...

Title	Pages	Chapters	Words	Audio	US release
A Game of Thrones	694[228]	73	292,727[229]	33 h 53 min	August 1996[228]
A Clash of Kings	768[230]	70	318,903[231]	37 h 17 min	February 1999[230]
A Storm of Swords	973[232]	82	414,604[233]	47 h 37 min	November 2000[232]
A Feast for Crows	753[234]	46	295,032[235]	31 h 10 min	November 2005[234]
A Dance with Dragons	1056[236]	73	414,788[237]	48 h 56 min	July 2011[236]
The Winds of Winter	Forthcoming[238]
A Dream of Spring	Forthcoming[239]
Total	4,244	344	1,736,054	198 h 53 min	1996–present

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Companion app

George R. R. Martin's A World of Ice and Fire – A Game of Thrones Guide, an application that provides the biographies of 540 characters, descriptions of 380 places, and interactive maps, was released on iOS in November 2012, then on Android in March 2013.^[240] The app's "anti-spoiler functionality" hides information not yet revealed at the point up to which the user has read the novels.^[241]

Tabletop games

In 2012, Fantasy Flight Games released the Game of Thrones: The Card Game for two players, which features characters, locations, events, and plots from the television adaptation.^[246] In 2014, they released another card game titled Game of Thrones: Westeros Intrigue, which is a game for two to six players where they deal character cards in an attempt to claim the Iron Throne for themselves.^[247]

In 2015, USAopoly (The Op Games) released Risk: Game of Thrones. It is a variant of the board game Risk with changes to incorporate the theme, such as maester cards, character cards, and new maps of Westeros and Essos.^[248][249] In the same year, they also launched the Monopoly: Game of Thrones Collector's Edition.^[250]

Video games

Following the success of the HBO TV series, Game of Thrones motivated the development of several video games. Game of Thrones Ascent, a freemium social network game, was made available by Disruptor Beam in 2013 on Facebook and Kongregate. It was made in collaboration with HBO and Martin. The game combines storytelling and strategy elements, allowing players to lead the life of a nobleman during the time of upheaval portrayed in the novels and the TV series.^[251] In 2014, Telltale Games produced a six-episode adventure game titled Game of Thrones: A Telltale Games Series.^[252]

There are also several fan-made modifications ("mods") to commercial video games that allow playing in the world of A Song of Ice and Fire. These include a total conversion for the strategy game Crusader Kings II,^[253][254] as well as the mods "War of the Usurper" for its predecessor Crusader Kings, "Westeros: Total War The Age of Petty Kings" for Medieval II: Total War, and "A Clash Of Kings" for Mount & Blade: Warband.^[255]