HBO Execs Expect More than 7 Seasons

[Westeros]

The news ran wild last night with the report from the Television Critics’ Association summer session panel where HBO executive Michael Lombardo spoke about Game of Thrones and remarked the following:

âSeven-seasons-and-out has never been the [internal] conversation. The question is: How much beyond seven are we going to do? Obviously weâre shooting six now, hopefully discussing seven. [David & Dan] feel like thereâs two more years after six. I would always love for them to change their minds, but thatâs what weâre looking at right now.â

On top of that, when asked about potential prequels, Lombardo expressed strong willingness to further delve into the Game of Thrones story once the main series was done.

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[AerionBrightflameII]

Season 6 will only cover half of WOW i doubt they could squeeze 1 1/2 books in season 7....

[boojam]

Season 6 will only cover half of WOW i doubt they could squeeze 1 1/2 books in season 7....

That's a good question. Will 6 be half of Winds and 7 the other half, or will 7 and 8 be Dream?

[boojam]

I am thinking this is more a business decision more than anything else. I think that the thinking started after season 3 proved a success. That is the thinking on HBO's part. Then season 4 beat that. At the end of season 5 HBO looked at its line up and future line up and didn't see anything bigger than GoT. Even if 6 does not top 5 HBO will still have a popular property. Right now I think budget wise Time Warner is telling HBO they
will back production. Season 5 was apparently 100 million , I think HBO-Time-Warner can pony up even more.

[Ran]

Yes, I am leaning to the idea that Lombardo's remarks suggest they'll be willing to pay the (extravagant) salaries of everyone involved if they renegotiated for a season 8. But they can do a split season 7 as well, I suppose.

 

That said,  way back when the idea was to have 80+ hours television to get the story done right. Cutting that down to 70 hours, as some mooted, was a pretty substantial trim, and I think for some it felt obvious in Season 5 in particular.

[TheTowerOfJoy]

If George could get TWoW released prior to season 6, and season 7 doesn't go far into ADOS, then maybe George could write ADOS in 2 years if he didn't do a book tour for TWOW?  One could always hope.

[jugdesh258]

Seems very sloppy in the planning to me.  All this back and forth.  

 

Quality critique in season 5 directly related to need to race in catch up to the end of DwD

[Many Faced Dude]

LSH, fAegon, Quentyn - here we come !!

[boojam]

Yes, I am leaning to the idea that Lombardo's remarks suggest they'll be willing to pay the (extravagant) salaries of everyone involved if they renegotiated for a season 8. But they can do a split season 7 as well, I suppose.

I seem to remember that splitting season 6 of the Sopranos led to a salary dispute with James Gandolfini.
Not saying any of the GoT cast would be that way.
Wonder how contracts work? Don't know so much for a season? Even if it is split? What if there are more than 10 episodes?
Was a character who shot scenes for season 3 but never appeared. I guess she got paid regular?

[Richard Writhen]

It'd be really great, again if they could work in Victarion or Arianne somehow. And Lady Stoneheart.

[Samson]

Apparently while discussing the potential for Dunk & Egg spinoff TV series, GRRM mentioned that when HBO and him did their deal for Game of Thrones tv series, and I quote but not word for word because I am not looking at it at the moment so could be a little bit off , "when I sold to HBO , they acquired the TV and movie rights to 'The lands of Westeros' - so if I wanted to do a Dunk & Egg [MY OWN INTERPRETATION- seemingly any spinoff of any characters etc. really-] TV series or movie, I'd have to remove every reference to Westeros, the Red Keep, et. al OR have HBO buy the Dunk & Egg series... which would probably be best for all involved.... "

 

Now I am not a particularly huge Dunk & Egg guy, I believe there are tons more possibly-interesting-if-not-tantalizingly-juicy subplots/characters/backstories/etc. that could be done, BUT ANYWAY, in my opinion, they are smart enough to realize they have a goldmine on their hands and are gonna "press their bets right up to the sky!" in Craps parlance.  I wouldn't be surprised to see GoT extended to as many seasons as they can get, 8, 9, etc. while being augmented or replaced with either Dunk & Egg or some other Westeros/Essos series .  I mean really, GRRM has laid such an absolutely amazingly rich foundation of storyline fabric from which to weave TV series/movies cloths, we could literally put the Westeros AND/OR Essos map on a wall, throw a dart, and make a TV series based on wherever the dart hits, and it would probably be awesome.

[Richard Writhen]

I would rather see a Dance of Dragons series, but then, I have yet to read Dunk and Egg or Dance of Dragons.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Just like Targaryens I guess... :drool:

[Werthead]

Wonder how contracts work? Don't know so much for a season? Even if it is split? What if there are more than 10 episodes?

 

Contracts are usually for seasons, with some wriggle-room to allow for varying numbers of episodes. There'd also likely be some form of compensation if the extra filming time meant actors foregoing other projects in the meantime.

 

However, none of this is an issue: HBO, highly unusually, renegotiated contracts with the cast between Seasons 4 and 5, rather earlier than they had to. Whatever deal they struck can be up to another six seasons (so up to a potential tenth season, or longer than the show will go on for) so there should be no further contractual issues going forwards.

 

And yes, I can see Dunk and Egg appealing as a different kind of show, more episodic, probably cheaper (a vastly smaller cast), maybe a bit more tonal variety and less overall grimness. The question is how many GoT watchers would carry over to watch a much smaller-scaled show, but it could work and be quite interesting.

[Samson]

in my opinion you have to pick and choose your battles .... Dunk and Egg might appeal to some hardcore members of Book Readers (although I might point out, I don't think it would appeal to even a large portion of Book Readers, let alone a majority) it would be completely foreign to show watchers, and they might not even give it a fair shake let alone get into it.

 

However, the RIGHT spinoff (or even spinoffS) would totally work... Lets use Breaking Bad as an example.  It started out as a good show that not a ton of people watched but it had a great premise, and therefore, when someone explained it to you (or you read a blurb online somewhere) you said, That sounds pretty good... or cool.. or interesting etc.

 

Then it basically took over the USA, became the most hyped show on TV for a few years.  And it has a pretty successful and well-thought-of spinoff Better Call Saul, with one of the shows breakout stars.... BUT- had they decided to make the spinoff show about Tuco Salamanca and the Mexican Cartel, (which I guess to be honest could have drawn interest) or more realistically, say it was about The Schwartz's (the billionaires former partners of Walter who  feature prominently in the last ep) -- people probably wouldn't really care.  Even tho they're essential to the story and storyline, people wouldn't watch.

 

 

 

How bout a show about Bronn, and his life up to the point he meets Tyrion and saves him?  That would be awesome and would feature an actor everyone seems to love in the show.  Or even better.... the life of a young Barristan Selmy, from the Mystery Knight's armor making him Barristan The Bold to the Kingsguard service for what is it, 3 kings and a queen?  to his last weeks at Kings Landing.  Give us a great actor for the younger Ser Barristan and it's be a super hit.

 

Dunk and Egg just doesn't do it for me, but I realize others will have a different opinion.

[Faint]

I seem to remember that splitting season 6 of the Sopranos led to a salary dispute with James Gandolfini.
Not saying any of the GoT cast would be that way.
Wonder how contracts work? Don't know so much for a season? Even if it is split? What if there are more than 10 episodes?
Was a character who shot scenes for season 3 but never appeared. I guess she got paid regular?

 

Contracts are usually structured for periods of time, typically by years, not by episode or season. This is why the split last season has become a popular course of action and probably why James Gandolfini was so mad; HBO was trying to get an extra season from him when he was being compensated the same and working twice as hard. 

[Samson]

and also- James Gandolfini WAS The Sopranos ... everyone else were just actors and actresses in HIS Show, without James Gandolfini the Sopranos would have been nowhere near the supreme #1 Show success it was.

 

 

GoT , while surely having some standouts and fan favorites / important characters, has SO MANY people, it's completely different situation as far as actors/contracts/etc.  In my humble opinion, anyway

[Faint]

GoT , while surely having some standouts and fan favorites / important characters, has SO MANY people, it's completely different situation as far as actors/contracts/etc.  In my humble opinion, anyway

 

To some extent, but it all comes to the same thing in the end. The point is, it would be expensive. They would have to renew Peter Dinklage, Emilia Clarke, Kit Harington, Sophie Turner and Maisie Williams for an eighth season, and possibly even Lena Headey and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau. I cannot even begin to guess what an eighth season of Game of Thrones would cost. 

 

Even so, it it still a more than worthwhile option for HBO provided the ratings remain level. They do not have another show at the moment anywhere near as popular.