The final season of Game of Thrones was a slap in the face, of sorts, to the fans who’d been with the show from the beginning, but seven years later, the sting of that betrayal is finally starting to ebb. Meanwhile, HBO hasn’t stopped trying to spin a new series out of the chaos of the Thrones finale, and it may finally have one that could be interesting.
For a while, a sequel series featuring a sadder, self-destructive Jon Snow was on tap. Kit Harington was working with screenwriters from another HBO series, Gunpowder, to explore the warrior’s self-imposed exile in the North, partially inspired by his own mental health struggles post-Game of Thrones. Per The Hollywood Reporter, Jon would have been reintroduced as “a broken man with PTSD.” Harington reportedly wanted to subvert any hope of redemption for Jon after being forced to murder Daenerys Targaryen; rather than reclaim his hero status, he would have met his demise alone.
Such a bleak premise wasn’t so enticing for HBO, which led to the show being shelved in 2023. After some regrouping, however, a new concept might be rising from the ashes of the old: a series focused on Jon’s sister, Arya Stark.
The Jon Snow series is no more, but HBO is keeping the Thrones sequels in the Stark family.
THR revealed that HBO is quietly moving on a new post-Thrones series, following a very different member of the Stark family. The studio has chosen a new writer — Quoc Dang Tran, perhaps best known for Apple TV’s Drops of God — to spearhead the project. Development is in the earliest stages, with details of a story still coming together, but sources claim that it will follow Arya’s adventures in the land of Essos, the Mediterranean-inspired land that lies across the Narrow Sea.
Arya spent significant time in Essos, specifically the city of Braavos, in Thrones’ sixth season. That’s where she joined the cult of Faceless Men, and learned to be “no one.” Though she chose to sail “West of Westeros” at the end of Thrones, there’s a chance this new spinoff could pick up many years in Arya’s future and bring her back to some familiar territory. A time jump would certainly make sense: actress Maisie Williams is seven years older, and if HBO wants to distance itself from the bad vibes of the Thrones finale, it needs as fresh a start as it can get.
After years of false starts, this could be a truly promising update for the Thrones universe, although we’ll need to wait and see if things actually stick this time. Neither HBO nor Thrones author George R.R. Martin has commented on the story, and no actors are in talks to return just yet. But if there must be a sequel to Game of Thrones, the franchise could certainly do worse than a show focused on a fan-favorite character.
