George R.R. Martin Suggests Idea For Another 'Game Of Thrones' Spin-Off; Learn About 'Unseen Westeros' Exhibit

Until HBO decides to reveal more official information about their upcoming Game of Thrones prequel show, we're going to have to make do with updates from author George R.R. Martin, who's on board as a co-creator/executive producer. In a new interview, Martin offered a brief update about HBO's upcoming prequel and also spoke about a new Game of Thrones spin-off idea which he compares to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead.

Plus, check out a trailer for an incredible-looking new exhibition called Unseen Westeros, which features glorious imagery of lands and places that we haven't seen in the show and Martin hasn't really expanded on in his texts. Learn more about it below.

Speaking with The New York Times, Martin talked very briefly about the new prequel series that has Naomi Watts lined up to star, a development he refers to as "very exciting." He spoke about how co-creator/showrunner Jane Goldman didn't have much to go on when she was tackling this new show because Martin's own texts haven't expounded much on that era:

"Well, [Goldman] had to add something. If you look at the published books so far, there's really very little material about that — a sentence here, a sentence there. Old Nan tells a tale that takes up a paragraph. So Jane had to create the characters, the settings and some of the events, and we had to look at everything that was said and say, "O.K., here's what was said at this point, we need to make it consistent to that." We kicked around some ideas and I made some suggestions. But mostly it's been Jane running with it. It's set thousands of years before "Game of Thrones." King's Landing does not exist. The Iron Throne does not exist. There are no dragons there."

All of that essentially just confirms things we already knew – but here's a fun thing Martin revealed that we hadn't seen before. When asked about other possible prequel shows, the author explained a project he'd like to see come to life:

"I haven't been able to convince HBO that this is a good idea yet, but I would actually love to do something like that. Have you ever seen "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead"? "Hamlet" is going on in the background, but it's all about Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.

I wanted to do a show called "Spear Carriers," which would actually be set during the events of "Game of Thrones," but it wouldn't be following Dany, Tyrion and Jaime. They would all be there in the background like Hamlet, and it would be more like, "Here's a story about a guy in the City Watch; here's a story about a prostitute at one of Littlefinger's brothels; here's a story about a mummer who's in town to do juggling and tricks." And they all get caught up in the events. I think that kind of show would be a lot of fun to do. Maybe I'll be able to convince them to do it!"

The actors from Game of Thrones won't be returning in the Naomi Watts show (which still isn't officially called The Long Night...yet), but if Martin has his way, Spear Carriers could be an opportunity to see the cast return to reprise their roles and see certain events from a different angle – almost like the "Johnny B. Goode" scene in Back to the Future Part II. Now we'll just have to wait and see if anyone at HBO thinks it's worth doing.

HBO's Game of Thrones is a sweeping series which has visited tons of exotic locales on the fictional continents of Westeros and Essos, but there's still plenty of Martin's world that hasn't been seen on screen yet – or even really mentioned beyond a stray line or two in his A Song of Ice and Fire novels. But Unseen Westeros is going to show us what those unexplored corners of his fantasy world look like. It's an exhibition from 40 artists who, with Martin's approval, have spent three years crafting beautiful looks at fictional locations which haven't appeared on the show. Check out the trailer:

The exhibition opens in Berlin in January 2019, and it's free to the public. There's no word yet about whether it will be a touring exhibition that could potentially end up somewhere in the United States, but we'll keep you posted if we hear more. You can learn more about it here, and even get a nifty limited-edition book version if you support the exhibition on Kickstarter.