Every Canceled Game Of Thrones Spin-Off Series We Know About

By certain metrics, "Game of Thrones" was and is the biggest TV show of all time. At no other moment in history — and by moment, in this case, I mean a span of several years — has a single series sat so definitively on the (pardon the pun) throne of television. It was a cultural phenomenon unlike any other, and so it was the least surprising thing in the world when HBO announced plans to massively expand the franchise with various spin-offs after the original show ended.

Those plans started on somewhat rocky footing due to the largely negative response to "Game of Thrones" season 8, which will go down as bag-fumbling of gargantuan proportions. But more than half a decade on, that ire has faded, and the first big spin-off, "House of the Dragon," has returned the world of Westeros to critical acclaim. The third live-action series, "A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms," is set to premiere in 2026, but these aren't the only projects that have been announced.

The number of announced or rumored "Game of Thrones" spin-offs, sequels, and prequels is somewhat staggering. A few that appear to be currently in the works include a show covering Aegon the Conqueror's conquest of Westeros and a prequel about Robert Baratheon's rebellion against the Targaryen Dynasty. Many more, however, have already been canceled. Their watch has ended before it began, so let's eulogize the "Game of Thrones" shows that almost were, but weren't.

One of the first reported "Game of Thrones" spin-offs also became one of the first to be formally canceled. "Flea Bottom" took its name from the slum district of King's Landing, which features prominently in the original series. The concept would have detailed life in this poor part of Westeros, with lots of potential for intersecting storylines in such a crowded and complicated place.

We never got any formal word from HBO on when the show would have taken place. A ground-level view of the general populace could have been an interesting perspective from which to continue the story after the end of "Game of Thrones" season 8, but given the state of that fictional world at that point on the timeline, it seems more likely that we would have gotten something set a little earlier — maybe during Robert Baratheon's reign, or the late, post-dragon years of the Targaryen Dynasty.

HBO formally killed the project by the middle of 2021, and it's not hard to see why. The franchise has built its reputation with massive, sprawling epics, and a show set in a slum district of the world's filthiest city doesn't exactly fit that brand image. Still, it's easy to imagine how "Flea Bottom" could have become quite an interesting show, digging into the underworld of Westeros and the ways in which supercilious royals cause devastating consequences for their citizens.

No canceled "Game of Thrones" spin-off got further along in the production process than "Bloodmoon." Announced as the planned follow-up to the original series before "House of the Dragon" claimed that role, the show would have gone way back in time to the oft-referenced "Age of Heroes" from George R.R. Martin's books — a time when the civilization of Westeros was much less modern and more magical. The primary conflict would have involved the White Walkers and the so-called "Long Night" when they last attacked and were pushed back into the North.

"Bloodmoon really stood out as different, with unique world-building," HBO EVP and head of drama Francesca Orsi told The Hollywood Reporter in 2022. "Tonally it felt very adult, sophisticated and intelligent, and there was a thematic conversation at the center of it about disenfranchisement in the face of colonialism and religious extremism." A high-budget look into the more mystical history of Westeros, all with some deep-rooted thematic ideas ... sounds fantastic, right?

So what went wrong? In part, it was the lack of knowledge on Martin's part that held the show back. "We're dealing with a much more primitive people," the author told THR. "There were no dragons yet. A lot of the pilot revolved around a wedding of a Southern house to a Northern house and it got into the whole history of the White Walkers." While that specific storyline was well developed, the larger state of the world was something Martin hadn't fleshed out in his prior writing, leaving the show's creative team up to their own devices when it came to huge swathes of history and worldbuilding. A $35 million pilot was shot, with Naomi Watts starring and "Kingsman: The Secret Service" writer/producer Jane Goldman serving as showrunner. Despite that massive investment, HBO decided to can the project.

Another show idea digging into the more distant history of Westeros was "Ten Thousand Ships," which would have followed Princess Nymeria of the Rhoynar roughly 1,000 years before the start of "Game of Thrones." The title of the series was pulled from the in-universe legend of Nymeria, who led the remaining Rhoynar across the sea to Dorne after being ousted from their homeland by the Valyrian Freehold.

Nymeria's name is often conjured in "Game of Thrones" because it's the name Arya Stark gives to her direwolf at the start of the series — a symbol of Arya's desire to become a famed female warrior herself.

While this show was taken off the calendar for HBO, there's actually still some hope here that it could come back around. The original version, which at different points was attributed to Amanda Segel and "A Knight's Tale" writer/director Brian Helgeland, was ultimately shelved by the network, but there's been word of a different version making the rounds. "It came out great, but I think they felt the period of my show was too far removed from the pillars of the original," Helgeland told Inverse in 2024, referring to his original concept, which he described as "the story of Moses but swapping him out for Nymeria." The theoretical production would have been incredibly complex and expensive by the sound of it, with Helgeland describing the Rhoynar "living in a raft city that was bound together, this big floating city."

Just a couple of months after Helgeland's chat with Inverse, George R.R. Martin posted on his personal blog that Pulitzer Prize winner Eboni Booth was taking a crack at the project. There have been no official updates since then.

Of all the "Game of Thrones" spin-off ideas that got tossed around near the show's end, only one would have given the original series a direct sequel. Tentatively titled "Snow," the show would have starred Kit Harington as Jon Snow in the time following season 8. According to a blog post from Martin on June 23, 2022, Kit Harington himself pitched the idea and brought in some of the initial folks to form the creative and production teams.

In 2024, Harington told Entertainment Weekly that the series had been shelved, saying, "it's not happening — and not happening anytime soon anyway. We bounced some ideas around and nothing really lit us up." While he left the door open for the show to continue development sometime later down the line, odds seem slim.

In fairness, making a direct sequel after the culture-shakingly controversial final season of "Game of Thrones" might have been a dicey proposition. "House of the Dragon" has benefitted from its narrative distance from the original series, which wrapped up in a way many fans still find embarrassing. A Jon Snow sequel would have been dealing with all of those final plot points directly, so it makes sense why the team assembled struggled to contrive a convincing premise.

Moving on from the definitely canceled and the perpetually shelved, it seems appropriate to discuss a couple of "Game of Thrones" series that still seem like long shots but could happen at some point in the future. Both are planned animated series, marking a transition from the franchise's live-action roots.

The first would follow "House of the Dragon" character Lord Corlys Velaryon, aka the Sea Snake, on a series of adventures and campaigns from his youth. "Nine Voyages" is the working title. As recently as January 2024, "Rome" and "The Mentalist" creator Bruno Heller was attached to pen the pilot script.

Another animated series, with the working title "The Golden Empire," would focus on the Essos region of Yi Ti, based on Imperial China. Martin has confirmed that the project is will be animated if it makes it through development. In a 2024 interview with Entertainment Weekly, the author also claimed that three "Game of Thrones" animated shows were on the table at HBO, meaning that there's still at least one surprise in store.