The Hedge Knight Game Of Thrones Spin-Off Is Shutting Down
The Game of Thrones spin-off series A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms: The Hedge Knight is shutting down along with the WGA strike.
Famed procrastinator and visionary author George R.R. Martin has shed some light on the fate of the upcoming Game of Thrones spin-off, The Hedge Knight, courtesy of his official WordPress blog at GeorgeRRMartin.com. According to Martin’s correspondence, it looks like production on the series has shut down entirely following the recent Writers Guild of America strike, which has also crippled a number of late-night programs including Saturday Night Live. The Song of Ice and Fire author also explained the current status on a number of his other series currently in production, while shedding some incredibly insightful insider knowledge on the strike itself.
The writers of the Game of Thrones spin-off series, whose full title is A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms: The Hedge Knight, were in the middle of writing the first season when the strike officially went into effect on May 1st. As both a member and vocal supporter of the WGA, Martin (and his staff) immediately ceased work on the program in order to join their fellow wordsmiths in demanding better pay and benefits from studios and streamers alike. While many series have been granted the opportunity to continue shooting completed scripts, so long as no additional changes are made to the written material, any shows which have not completed the screenwriting process are at an indefinite standstill.
This doesn’t bode well for The Hedge Knight as the last writers strike, which spanned from November 2007 to February 2008, lasted 100 days, crippling many productions to the point of cancelation. Some shows from the time suffered significantly truncated seasons, such as Breaking Bad, whose first season was cut down to only 7 episodes, while other shows were left on the cutting room floor entirely. As for the future of the Game of Thrones spin-off, only time will tell, but George R.R. Martin warns that the odds of the show coming to fruition are looking very slim.
Since the studios and streamers were aware of the WGA’s negotiating stand-still for some time in advance, Martin alleges that executives have stockpiled scripts in order to continue production smoothly throughout the strike, leveraging their position against the out-of-work writers. While some of Martin’s upcoming series such as Dark Winds have completed the writing process, the Game of Thrones spin-off series will be trapped in a stalemate until the strike concludes. In the blog post, George R.R. Martin confirms that Dark Winds has wrapped production and will be set to air on AMC this Summer.
Meanwhile, Martin has other projects, such as a pilot developed for Peacock adapting his Wild Cards book series, which have been passed over and are not slated to get a full season order, while the second season of the other popular Game of Thrones spin-off, House of the Dragon, is currently being filmed overseas. The last WGA strike had a major ripple effect across the industry, changing the landscape of television as we know it, and is largely credited for the rise of unscripted reality television which became highly popularized at the time. Now, with a number of prestige series weighing in the balance, and the threat of this strike lasting even longer than the 2007-2008 strike, the consequences for television fans could be disastrous.
