Game Of Thrones Cancels Two Upcoming Spinoffs, Is The Franchise In Trouble?

It hasn't been confirmed, but all signs point to the Game of Thrones prequels The Seas Snake and 10,000 Ships being shelved.

By Robert Scucci | Updated

game of thrones

The conclusion of Game of Thrones has left a massive void to be filled for fans of the series, and HBO has been hard at work developing myriad spinoff series to fill the gap, and keep the franchise relevant. One of the realities of developing a show, or several shows, however, is that potential projects will get canceled in favor of other properties, and according to Winter is Coming, this seems to be the case for The Sea Snake and 10,000 Ships, which would have told the stories of Corylys Velaryon and Princess Nymeria.

While George R.R. Martin stated on his personal blog that a couple of Game of Thrones spinoffs were shelved, he didn’t mention which ones, stating “You can take something off the shelf as easily as you can put it on the shelf. All the changes at HBO Max have impacted us, certainly.

Martin was likely trying to play his hand close to his chest knowing that while The Sea Snake and 10,000 ships are currently paused, that doesn’t necessarily mean that they won’t eventually be green-lit at some point in time.

Whether Martin was deliberately trying to be secretive or not, it didn’t take long for the internet to do its thing and find out which two spinoffs were potentially canned. The two series were identified by Reddit user u/Zionus_ , who noticed the shows were missing from the Startling, Inc. website that lists all of the active Game of Thrones related projects that are currently in the works. The Sea Snake and 10,000 Ships were listed up until a couple days ago, but then mysteriously disappeared from the site, causing suspicion among fans.

But all things considered, the Game of Thrones franchise is doing just fine, and the two potentially canceled spinoffs are only making way for other shows that are currently in development. Martin simply stated that some shows develop faster than others, and that’s par for the course. In the case of the franchise moving forward, House of the Dragon finally gave us the Game of Thrones the prequel treatment we were waiting for.

house of the dragon

There are plenty more Game of Thrones spinoffs in the works including an adaptation of Martin’s Dunk & Egg novellas, a House of the Dragon prequel involving Corylys Velaryon, and even a currently untitled series involving Jon Snow that is being developed by Kit Harington. If that’s not enough to get your fill, there is also an untitled animated series in the works that we’ll know more about as it further develops.

While the future of some Game of Thrones properties are uncertain, George R.R. Martin wants to put his fans at ease; House of the Dragon‘s second season is currently in production, and despite some difficulties that presented themselves, projects will continue to move forward. These difficulties stem from the merger between HBO Max and Warner Bros. Discovery, and it’s only suiting for there to be some casualties along the way. We’re talking about Game of Thrones, after all.

In the meantime, fans can get their fill on the new projects that have been green-lit, and rest assured that even though The Sea Snake and 10,000 Ships are currently on the back-burner, it doesn’t mean that they won’t eventually resurface and move forward in their development at some point in time. But for now we’ll have to wait, and put our trust in the creative process.