Game of Thrones Renewed!

[The Anti-Targ]

7 seasons to cover 7 books, extend 3-7 out to 12 episodes and we're done.

I agree there's really no pay off with Dany if the series ends with ASoS. If there's really no intention to bring the story to the point of Dany's return to Westeros they should have just Tom Bombadiled her whole story. Though they can do this in ASoS because in principle Dany is ready to return to Westeros in ASoS, she just gets a little side tracked. Season 3 (or 4) can end with her setting off to Westeros if that's where they definitively decide to finish the TV series.

I wonder, if HBO can it after ASoS if someone else would/could pick up the rights and finish it off. If a season or 2 of ASoS is well received then there will still be an audience hungry for more.

[Ser Nevarc]

Here we come Storm!!

[Screaming Turkey Reborn]

Carnivale isn't "Fantasy". "Fantasy" is swords, knights, armor, Middle-ages Europe, etc.

Mind you, I think it's a pretty stupid definition... but I'm not the one that makes these things up.

No, that's just a certain type of fantasy. Fantasy contains many subgenres.

[DemonKing]

Here's an interview with GRRM where he suggests the following setup:

Season 1: Game of Throne

Season 2: Clash of Kings

Seasons 3-4: Storm of Swords

Seasons 5-8: Dance with Dragons/Feast for Crows (recombined)

I doubt that model will work, although it is probably the only one that will give GRR a chance to actually finish the Winds of Winter/A Dream of Spring novels off before their broadcast dates come up!

[BigFatCoward]

i was in the pub yesterday with people from work and about a third had either watched it or had sky plussed the first episode. i never doubted it would get greenlit.

[DemiNymph]

True Blood has 12 episodes per season. Incidentally the ratings for TB were only about 1+ mil per episode for season 1, so we are doing 4 times better already!

Deadwood has 12 episodes per season.

Rome - 12ep in S1, 10ep in S2

Six Feet Under - 13 or 12ep per season.

The Wire - 13

I understand that a medival series definitely costs so much more to produce than a modern series. Not to mention the huge numbers of extras they have to hire just to play soldiers, and the cost to outfit them. And the sets, and costumes. And the CG. But dammit, we need more episodes than 10.

I agree, they could have cut out Dany. As fans we would miss it, but it could give the series a better chance to be cohesive rather than suffer erratic pacing and poor character development later in the series which would result from rushing the storyline. For someone who had not read the books, it is really very hard to follow so many characters. Or, cut out Renly and Stannis storyline. We don't really need to add in the Baratheons to the mix. (haha) Theon's story should be cut too. Winterfell should be sacked in another way, we don't need the Ironborn added to the storyline. It's too confusing to have so many parties contesting for the Throne, in the end people would get confused and give up on the series.

Now, in Season 1, the audience has to keep track of these plot lines

1) King's Landing - Ned, Sansa, Arya, Cersei, Robert, Jamie, LittleFinger

2) Dany, Drogo and Viserys

3) Jon and the wall, Benjen Stark (as it is, people are going to wonder if this guy was ever going to show up again.) The rest of the black bros. Sam.

4) Winterfell - Bran, Rob, Theon, Luwin

5) a) Catelyn + B) Tyrion - more confusing because these two characters travel a lot in AGOT.

They should just make the TV series to be about Stark vs Lannister vs Dany fighting for the throne, plus the threat of the Others at the wall. Cut out the rest of it. Yes, that means Dorne and Highgarden should go as well. It would dumb down the story a lot, but make for a better storyline and a TV program that is easier to get into and follow. Without the books to explain and give perspectives, the rest of the characters can't be developed fully on screen. It would really be an injustice to them to have one-liners and the audience that go "Eh?" all the time.

[Maxxy]

I am so thrilled to hear this. They did such a great job on the pilot. I look forward to watching the rest of the season. After reading these books about 5 times now, nice watch it come alive on HBO.

[Maxxy]

Great news to start the morning!

After rewatching ep1 last night, I think the little girl playing Arya is adorable and perfect for the role. Can't wait to see her travails in CoK and hopefully, aSoS. Same with the kid playing Bran.

I agree, she is adorable! She does seem to be doing a great job in that role.

[FatCatOberyn]

Great! :commie: :commie:

[marclechef]

More news on the second season here: HBO Re-commissions 'Game of Thrones'

[reiver]

The series won't last that long. Rome had 6 seasons planned, and ended up chopping off the last 2 and compressing seasons 2-4 into one.

If I had to plan based off of climaxes in the books:

Season 1: Game of Thrones

Season 2: Clash of Kings/Storm of Swords

Season 3: Storm of Swords

Season 4-5: Dance with Dragons/Feast for Crows

Just make the seasons longer...three more episodes a year would do wonders for compacting the story a bit.

HBO accepted they made a mistake with Rome. They organised the funding wrongly and the decision was made before they realised the revenue from DVD sales, I don't think they'll repeat that mistake.

Assuming the show gets better and finds the right tone to attract a decent audience i don't see why we can't have 6 or 7 seasons or more. The flexibility the network gave the Sopranos over show and season length could be repeated here and when they've got a show that's both critically acclaimed and popular they are mostly willing to run with it. So we might start seeing episodes with their length tailored to fit the story they want to tell rather than an arbitrary time limit. Also split seasons (which might work for ASoS). Given that i'd expect this series to perfom strongly on DVD/Blueray they might decide that more seasons and thus more boxsets are a good idea. While they don't have to follow the books rigidly, due to the seperate stories there's the opportunity to splice, split and chop without becoming too confused so stopping Asos at the Red wedding for example might work as a mini season finale.

[Padraig]

Ok, so we now know that S2 will cover 10 episodes also. It will be interesting to see what they do. I've considered them adding aSoS chapters into a S2 before but it did assume that there would be more than 10 episodes. So i'm not sure what will happen now.

Hopefully we'll get an interview from D&D soon where they give us a better idea of their plan. It really is a challenge. Dany, Jon and Jaime have a rather low-key time in aCoK while in aSoS they have a lot happening. So they might still decide to squeeze some aSoS stuff into S2 to increase their presence (all 3 have been focused on by the production).

OTOH they have already mentioned possibly giving Robb more time in S2. So questions, questions...

I think looking beyond S2 is rather hopeless right now. They might give up on the idea of 1 book 1 season after S2. They could look at books 3 to 5 combined and see can they find reasonable breaks to create 3 or 4 seasons out of them.

I doubt they are going to worry too much about how quickly they can finish the series. They haven't even seen the last 3 books. So probably thinking about 1 book at a time right now.

[Abaddon]

The easiest answer is four seasons for three books. Season 1: A Game of Thrones. Season 2: 80% of A Clash of Kings. Season 3: 20% ACOK, 44% A Storm of Swords. Season 4: The rest of ASOS.

That gives us 10 episodes for AGOT (done), 12 episodes for ACOK, and 18 episodes for ASOS. ASOS is a big book but 18 episodes seems like a lot, so I would at that point suggest bringing some of the AFFC/ADWD story forward. That makes season 4 a bit of a mish-mash and might make it tough to make it feel cohesive though.

I really hope they are considering this.

[Jons_Ghost]

Carnivale isn't "Fantasy". "Fantasy" is swords, knights, armor, Middle-ages Europe, etc.

No, that's history ;)

[Blue Steel]

Agreed. No way is it going to go down the way Martin laid out like that.

The best possible case I see is a full 7 seasons with seasons 3 and onward getting 12 episodes each. Its doable too, it would just take some rearranging of stuff; like moving some of aSoS Dany stuff into Season 2, moving the Greyjoys from aFfC into Season 3, but moving some of the later parts of aSoS into Season 4, recombining aFfC and aDwD and then splitting them chronologically (and trimming some of the extraneous sections down, like Brienne), and hoping and praying that books 6 and 7 have already been published and the series is done and that each can be a single season.

Most logic probably is ending it after aSoS, but I really hope that its a big enough hit that HBO decides to go all the way. (also if it ends after aSoS it has the thematic problem of "what was the point of Dany?")

Yea I agree. They will have to trim a lot but hopefully if they do it is still a good show. Even if it's not exactly like the book. If it's good enough to make people read the book, then it's good enough for me. Because if it achieves that, then it's probably a tv show that I'd like to watch and enjoy.

Also, sup fellow GW alum.

[awesome possum]

I agree there's really no pay off with Dany if the series ends with ASoS. If there's really no intention to bring the story to the point of Dany's return to Westeros they should have just Tom Bombadiled her whole story. Though they can do this in ASoS because in principle Dany is ready to return to Westeros in ASoS, she just gets a little side tracked. Season 3 (or 4) can end with her setting off to Westeros if that's where they definitively decide to finish the TV series.

I don't see a problem with the series ending at ASoS if it absolutely needs to. It'll suck, but I don't think it will be difficult to tie up the loose ends. If anything, having a sequence where Bran "dreams" about the future should take care of it. He dreams:

- Jon and Stannis stocking the Wall with obsidian blades to combat the Others.

- His own training and subsequent Warg badassedness.

- Arya's training and coming back a Faceless Man

- Tyrion popping out of a cask in front of Dany and joining her

- The dragons growing to the point where the series ends with Dany and Tyrion mounting their dragons and heading to Westeros.

Or you can skip the dream sequence and simply age the dragons up so that the series ends with Dany mounting her black and taking off to Westeros with hundreds of ships behind her.

However, I think the show will be a ratings and DVD-selling juggernaut and will get as many seasons as it needs because it's a huge cash cow. The only major factor against the series going to an established end is if GRRM keeps plodding along to the point that the series has just finished season 4/5 and there still isn't a new book (we can only hope he gets back to his a book every two years schedule before Feast/Dance.

[Padraig]

The easiest answer is four seasons for three books. Season 1: A Game of Thrones. Season 2: 80% of A Clash of Kings. Season 3: 20% ACOK, 44% A Storm of Swords. Season 4: The rest of ASOS.

I really hope they are considering this.

I don't think so. What 20% do you drop into any S3? ASoS has a few plausible cut off points like the RW or Joff's wedding but not so much aCoK. We already know they are showing the Blackwater. Dany, Jaime and Jon need as many chapters as possible given they are already playing a smaller role in aCoK. They can't cut the Winterfell stuff sooner really.

I expect them to cover everything in aCoK.

I don't think the Dany is pointless angle is very worthwhile (assuming they ended after S3) People can read the books if they want to see the point of Dany. Not like Jon is that connected either. If they end early there is always going to be threads left hanging. Viewers are used to that.

[Corvinus85]

Season 1: Title - Game of Thrones (10 episodes); all of A Game of Thrones

Season 2: Title - Clash of Kings (10 episodes); all of A Clash of Kings

Season 3: Title - A Storm of Swords (12 episodes); all of A Storm of Swords

Season 4: Title - A Feast for Crows (12 episodes); all of A Feast for Crows + some parallel events from Dance (i.e. Davos, a little bit of Jon and Dany)

Season 5: Title - Dance with Dragons (10 episodes); the rest of A Dance with Dragons

The rest I don't know, but I hope each of the other books gets one season.

[Abaddon]

I don't think so. What 20% do you drop into any S3?

I hate being lazy, but someone has already done a great job of going through and identifying stuff that could be pulled forward, while still leaving the Blackwater battle. I just need to find a link to it...

I expect them to cover everything in aCoK.

There's no way they can do that in 10 episodes. They're going to have to cut stuff, somewhat heavily.

[Ecclesiastes]

This is GREAT news! I am wildly optimistic for the future of this series now.

I think HBO is currently playing it safe and making sure they don't throw away a ton of money by ordering seasons too far in advance. But there is a lot of reason to think that they have hoped all along that this series will be able to be green lit for the entire duration. My guess is that part of the initial pitch and the reason it got green lit for season 1 in the first place was that they would be able to get at least 7 amazing seasons out of this project if all went as well as could be hoped.

I think there is a lot more to this than simply profitability motivating HBO here. While profitability is the single biggest factor of how they will proceed going forward it is not the only major factor. I would submit that the element of creating great art is hugely important to the producers of GoT and even to HBO as well. HBO in agreeing to tackle this series has ultimately signed on for a huge commitment artistically not just financially. They want to have their brand associated with a great work of art and in this particular case there is well-known source material they are somewhat beholden to. Think about it, a great story that has lots of sex and violence in it that can be told over the course of many years, possibly gaining momentum as it goes. This is a literal wet dream for HBO and IMO they will try to milk it for all it's worth because there just aren't that many story's for them to choose from that have those elements. HBO realizes that their series will forever be compared to it's source and I believe very strongly they will be very careful how they proceed so as to not damage their reputations for ruining an excellent story. By all accounts the first season seems to have gone through extraordinary lengths to "get it right" and I cannot see that changing unless the show bombs and is not profitable.

While I think you can look at other HBO series to see what their general trends are on producing these shows, they do not exactly map onto this particular circumstance. Every show they make is different and ultimately must be handled according to the demands of the story itself not some formula you guys imagine HBO has. This story has books that are well known that must be done justice or else the backlash could be catastrophic for the brand HBO is carefully trying to develop.

A hit show is a rare and fragile commodity for a network. Most networks continue to crank out seasons long after a hit show has jumped the shark due to the enormous difficulties of developing a brand and finding an audience and the fact that usually these hits are irreplaceable. Season 2 will be 10 episodes because they still have to be somewhat careful as it's not yet certain that they have a true hit on their hands. However if season 1 grows its fanbase, becomes water cooler fodder, provides a nice backbone of subscribers and strong DVD sales, HBO will almost certainly allow the producers much more license to do the show the way they want to from Season 3 on. If that means extra episodes or possibly 2 seasons to tell the tale of SoS then so be it. HBO won't care too much if they have a bona fide hit. The key at that point for HBO will be to not turn people off with succeeding seasons. IMO the best way to do that is to simply get out of the way and let the artists involved do their thing (within a certain budget of course.) They will not want to ruin it or wind it up earlier than it needs to be if each season is profitable and artistically amazing. In fact for a subscriber based network like HBO I could see them going longer than expected not shorter. This is the type of series that could be an annual linchpin for their subscriber base like the Sopranos was. Each season will not stand alone either and the chances of it jumping the shark mid story are slim to none.

By agreeing to do this series and dedicating a full season to book 1, they have in essence gone all-in for the full story. My guess is that the entire story will be told more or less it it appears in the books. It's possible they could cut out the Ironborn or Dorne but I seriously doubt it. I'm staggered so many of you seem to think eliminating Dany's storyline was even a remote possibility. You have no idea how her story is going to end. I have felt all along that her storyline seems bizarrely remote to the central tale. It is a given to me that the only way this could possibly even be in the story in the first place is that she will be the one of the primary protagonists in the central storyline at some point in the future. If GRRM intends her to win in the end (or come close to winning but having a huge payoff one way or the other) they could hardly cut her storyline now could they? The fact that HBO included her storyline only confirms to me how central she is going to be to the story at a later date.