Weapons master Tommy Dunne, comedian Al Murray, actor Ian McElhinney and presenter Sue Perkins during the 'Game of Thrones' panel at the 2016 Advertising Week Europe held in London. (Photo : Getty Images/Jeff Spicer)
HBO programming president Casey Bloys said early talks for a prequel to "Game of Thrones" are already underway. In a recent interview, he admitted that he has been discussing potential prequel ideas with creator George R.R. Martin.
"We've talked very, very kind of high-level, like, 'Oh, that would be interesting, a prequel would be interesting, are there areas that make more sense?'" Bloys told TheWrap on Nov. 14, Monday. "But we haven't - no one has put pen to paper - yet. It's still pretty early on."
Bloys added "Game of Thrones" is such an incredible world with such great property, stressing that it would be insane not to at least explore the idea of some sort of prequel. He revealed HBO has yet to pinpoint an exact point of time to focus on from the vast Westeros history for potential "Game of Thrones" spin-off.
"I would say it's still kind of preliminary ongoing talks," Bloys demurred. "There are areas we are exploring, but I wouldn't point to anyone and say, 'This is what we're going to do.'"
If HBO does develop a prequel to "Game of Thrones," it will most likely no longer include current showrunners D.B. Weiss and David Benioff. The two have kept up their disinterest in a spin-off, stressing that they do not have any desire to work on another series within the same universe.
Earlier reports claimed the showrunners are contemplating wrapping up the popular fantasy series with only 13 more episodes. "Game of Thrones" Season 7 will just comprise of seven-episode and six-episode for the potential eighth and final season.
In an interview with Variety, Weiss and Benioff stated the short run will allow them to spend more time per episode. They also noted that the short-order episodes are due to the smaller amount of story content remaining.
"I think we're down to our final 13 episodes after this season," Benioff said. "We're heading into the final lap. That's the guess, though nothing is yet set in stone, but that's what we're looking at."
Stay tuned for more updates as they arrive. While waiting, check out the in-production teaser of "Game of Thrones" Season 7 below:
