HBO has plans to pick up where Game of Thrones left off.
The network’s blockbuster fantasy series came to an end in 2019 after eight seasons, and to say the show’s finale was divisive would be an understatement. Critics almost universally panned the conclusion, and the negative response from fans has affected the way both viewers and creators are preparing for HBO’s various Thrones spin-offs.
Despite GoT’s lackluster ending, it seems HBO is seriously considering investing in a successor series that will connect more directly to Game of Thrones than House of the Dragon or any of the other spin-offs in development.
A New Beginning — According to a recent report from The Hollywood Reporter, HBO is developing a Game of Thrones sequel series all about Jon Snow (Kit Harington). If the series makes it past the development stage, it’s expected to pick up where the Game of Thrones finale left off and follow Harington’s Snow as he makes a new life for himself with the Wildlings in the lands beyond the Wall.
Kit Harington is apparently attached to reprise his role as Jon Snow, but that will only happen if HBO actually greenlights the project.
Game of Thrones, continued — It’s worth noting that this project is in very early development and may never see the light of day. If it does, however, it has the potential to totally redefine how fans view the final moments of the Game of Thrones finale.
That finale revealed that Jon Snow was never going to become the ruler of Westeros that some fans assumed he would. While the show’s final season confirms that Jon is secretly Aegon Targaryen, the surviving son of Rhaegar Targaryen and Lyanna Stark, it never sees him take the Iron Throne for himself.
Instead, Jon makes the decision to assassinate Daenerys Targaryen (Emilia Clarke). As punishment, he’s exiled to live as a member of the Night’s Watch. The show’s final moments see Jon set out on a journey north with a group of Wildlings.
Jon Snow was never the Aragorn-esque reluctant ruler that many fans had imagined him to be. Instead, he’s more like Frodo Baggins, a figure who suffers numerous emotional and physical wounds over the course of his journey and is unable to return to his original life when all’s said and done. Both Frodo and Jon are forced to start a new life in a world separate from the one they started in.
This update, however, suggests that Jon’s life post-Game of Thrones may not peaceful. Instead, it’s apparently full of enough adventure and danger to fill an entire show’s worth of story.
The Inverse Analysis — Until more is revealed about this Game of Thrones sequel, it’s difficult to speculate about how heavily it may or may not impact the events of the original show. At this point, we don’t even know if it’s going to be made.
However, if the show does end up going into production, then it’s worth noting that it has the power to remove a lot of the bittersweet finality that’s present during Jon’s final march beyond the Wall. As it stands now, that scene suggests that the violent brutality of the show’s story has finally come to an end or, at the very least, that Jon has been freed from it.
Making an entire show about his struggles beyond The Wall could erase that feeling of catharsis from both Jon’s final moments and the Game of Thrones finale as a whole. In other words, while it’s easy to see the appeal of bringing a character like Jon Snow back, it’s also worth asking whether or not doing so would actually help or hurt the journey he’s already made.
In this case, it seems more likely than not that a sequel series focusing on Jon would only end up lessening the impact of his final Game of Thrones scene.