General/News

HBO Max Continues Game of Thrones Streak with Two More Animated Shows on the Way

Posted on by David Rosenblatt

King's Landing Dragonpit 7x07 (2) Drogon Dragon Daenerys

In a pre-pandemic world, eons and eons ago, it was announced that a Game of Thrones animated show was in development. We never heard about this again, as the surely curated info HBO has permitted to eke out has thus far pertained to House of the Dragon, as well as occasional news regarding the other in-development live-action shows. But now, for the first time in what seems like an eternity, there’s been an announcement on the animated front. And you know what they say: When it rains, it pours two more GOT animated projects are now in the works, for a total of three.

While the total of alleged upcoming animated shows is currently three, there is only a sliver of information available on exactly one of them, and it concerns a land of which we’ve heard barely a passing glance in Game of Thrones: Yi Ti. The Golden Empire of Yi Ti is a barely spoken of land across the Narrow Sea, considered one of the oldest and most developed societies in the world of Planetos. Inspired by Imperial China, similarly to how Westeros is largely inspired by Medieval Europe, Yi Ti has its own customs and rules, the likes of which I must confess to not recalling!

I’ve often said I like when things are different, and I’m glad that for a change, it sounds like HBO is shaking things up, and exploring not just the history of a location or a family (as they will with the Targaryens and eventually Westeros in House of the Dragon), but is exploring an entirely new location set in the same shared universe, the GOTCU if you will. As a book-familiar, albeit non book-purist myself, I think this provides ample opportunity for the writers to develop their own stories set in this world (presumably with George R. R. Martin’s permission of course). To that end the possibilities are limitless, and with animation at the helm, I suspect the budget wouldn’t be much of a constraint either. Time will tell.

What excites you most about this project?

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David Rosenblatt

46 Comments

  1. ”The Golden Empire of Yi Ti is a barely spoken of land across the Narrow Sea, considered one of the oldest and most developed societies in the world of Planetos. Inspired by Imperial China, similarly to how Westeros is largely inspired by Medieval Europe, Yi Ti has its own customs and rules, the likes of which I must confess to not recalling!

    I’ve often said I like when things are different, and I’m glad that for a change, it sounds like HBO is shaking things up, and exploring not just the history of a location or a family (as they will with the Targaryens and eventually Westeros in House of the Dragon), but is exploring an entirely new location set in the same shared universe, the GOTCU if you will….

    What excites you most about this project?”

    Arya’s direwolf ship docking in Yi Ti after circumnavigating the globe.

  2. The “Flea Bottom” show or idea/concept for a show has been apparently abandoned. As for these animated shows…to be honest, I don’t find any of them exciting or interesting.

    How about perhaps HBO should concentrate on one project and make sure that works before committing to more. So basically don’t put the horse before the cart.

  4. Ten Bears,

    Yep. That would indeed be something to see. “The Further Adventures of Arya and The Hound”. By the way that image is awesome. Love the artwork!

  5. Ten Bears,

    To hopefully return the favour…here is some Paul McCartney and Wings…I always liked the song, and the title “Band On The Run”.

  7. This is honestly getting comical now. Most of these shows wont see the light of day and I don’t think people are particularly interested in a whole host of spin offs. House of the Dragon is understandable, people (not me) love the Targs. I’d like to see the Dunk and Egg show, slightly more likely to be made because of the Targ connection. The Long Night show could have been good but that was scrapped. The Flea Bottom idea felt like them literally scraping the barrel. There is a lot of material to mine from but they are making some odd choices

  8. Jenny,

    I’ve wondered at times if we’re getting ‘too much of a good thing’ not just about HBO trying to milk the GoT cash cow which is running dry but about too much fantasy on TV in general. Don’t get me wrong I’m a sap for a sword, sandals and sorcery story and when I was younger I read and re-read my Puffin Books ‘King Arthur and His Knights of the Round Table’ (until I lent it to someone who didn’t return it) but in any genre a fare of “same old, same old” can wear thin. I quite liked the first series of ‘The Witcher’ though I was only familiar with the ‘Stryga’ short story. I’ve read the first ‘Wheel of Time’ book – it was (in my view) okay though didn’t grab me the way the first three ASOIAF books did. I’ll probably give WoT the show a try though I may have to wait until it is shown on a terrestrial network as I don’t have Amazon. In a land the size of China there must be a wealth of legends (other than ‘Mulan’ which received the Disney treatment) which could be woven into an animated series.

  9. Dame of Mercia,

    It’s a funny one, we did without for so long, and now networks have finally got the confidence to splash the cash on fantasy. So it’s good but it’s also a lot. Of the recent TV shows, I liked Shadow and Bone most, it’s based on the weakest book (so I hear) and still turned out well. I think the next season will be a treat. His Dark Materials Series 2 was better than the first imo. The Lord of the Rings TV show is the one that I am most intrigued by. It could be fantastic, it could be an epic disaster. I’m quite fascinated by that whole thing. It does feel like they are chasing the GOT glory days sometimes, but I try to take them at face value and judge them for what they are. I’m looking forward to Dune as well, though that is sci fi fantasy. And i’m losing my mind over the Green Knight, which I pray is good. I took a really long break from fantasy, so i’m catching up.

    If I could ask for one fantasy adaptation, it would be the Lies of Loche Lamora, absolutely wonderful book about a group of thieves in medieval fantasy Venice. Absolutely loved it. I do need to check out Wheel of Time, I’d read The Name of the Wind but apparently that is another series doomed to eternal purgatory. I’m not making that mistake again! I only trust Brandon Sanderson to finish his series, I don’t know how he cranks out so much stuff, and it’s always so interesting, new worlds and magic systems every time. I’ve become quite a fan.

    Agree about Yi Ti, there should be a lot of interesting lore to mine there, but I’m not convinced that it will actually go ahead. They are seemingly trying everything to see if it fits

  10. I like the idea of a Yi Ti story — as Jenny said, there should be a lot of interesting lore to mine there. I believe basilisks are claimed to roam their jungles 🙂 Seems like a new and unique environment in Planetos.

  13. Jenny,

    ”The Long Night show could have been good but that was scrapped.”

    Lead Actor Naomi Watts + Writer Jane Goldman = Good Bet. I’ll never understand how the HBO suits could pull the plug on “Blood Moon” without giving it the same chance to tweak the pilot that they gave GoT.

    ”The Flea Bottom idea felt like them literally scraping the barrel.”

    Yes. The bottom of the barrel. Unless this was going to be a Hot Pie origin story, it didn’t sound very promising.

  14. loco73,

    Elton John?
    I think I used one of his songs for a Musical Interlude dedicated to Ser Jorah Mormont a while back. If not, here it is (in 2 parts):

    Part 1 of 2
    ⚠️Musical Interlude
    Dedicated to Ser Jorah Mormont     🐻

    • S1, Jorah and Viserys
    “And yet, here I stand.”
    – Ser Jorah Mormont

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8VU0oKnWUTk

    • S8e3 Jorah defends Dany.
    At 2:25: Mortally wounded Jorah still stands up

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j2PBkZoi1Ho

    🎶”Don’t you know
    I’m still standing
    better than I ever did,
    Looking like a true survivor,
    feeling like a little kid
    I’m still standing after all this time…”    🎵

  16. Ten Bears,

    I agree , Blood Moon had a stellar cast, Toby Regbo, Josh Whitehouse, Jamie Cambell Bower just to name a few. They could have had Arya go through some kind of time warp while traveling west of Westeros, all kinds of things could have happened, too much to type out. She could have shown up suprisingly at the end of season one, cliffhanger. Then she would have been the one that started the Stark Line and married Bran the Builder, she could have been the one who told about all of the prophecies , jumbled up stories from the books over thousands of years got changed around. Example, “Spiders as big as hounds” Sir Gregor Clegane, The Hound, SPIDER, Lord Varus the dagger drawing in the book, the warging blood line,etc. I myself could make up a great story. HBO EFED up BIGTIME with not going forward with making the series.

  17. Jenny,

    Been waiting so long for Green Knight, can’t believe it’s almost here, really looking forward to it as well.

  18. While the total of alleged upcoming animated shows is currently three, there is only a sliver of information available on exactly one of them, and it concerns a land of which we’ve heard barely a passing glance in Game of Thrones: Yi Ti. The Golden Empire of Yi Ti is a barely spoken of land across the Narrow Sea, considered one of the oldest and most developed societies in the world of Planetos. Inspired by Imperial China, similarly to how Westeros is largely inspired by Medieval Europe, Yi Ti has its own customs and rules

    I’m not really a fan of animated shows, and I don’t think it’s a great choice for a “serious” franchise like GoT whose credibility has already been damaged by the way GoT ended up. A live-action show set in Yi Ti would have been much better. But the setting itself is a very interesting idea, and since budget constraints will be less of an issue I expect it’ll look impressive on-screen too.

    For people who are into live-action stuff set in historical China, I recommend “Red Cliff”. Lavish production values, charismatic lead actors, epic story, broadly based on real historical events (although it takes some liberties with the facts). You’ll enjoy it if you enjoyed “Kingdom of Heaven”; like the director’s cut of KoH, make sure you get the full-length version of Red Cliff, since the shorter heavily-edited version isn’t as good.

  19. Jai,

    For people who are into live-action stuff set in historical China, I recommend “Red Cliff”.

    This is a film, not a TV show, I should add.

  20. LatrineDiggerBrian,

    Yeah, thanks covid. We should have seen it months ago. I haven’t seen any reviews, but i’ve seen a couple of hints from people who have seen it and it sounds very very promising. I love Dev Patel, and the scale and tone of this thing looks fantastic, I love the art style they have chosen. I’m super excited!

  21. loco73,

    ⚠️ Off Topic

    ”…here is some Paul McCartney and Wings…I always liked the song, and the title

    “Band On The Run”.

    Coincidentally, while preparing a Musical Interlude

    for tomorrow (Tuesday) dedicated to Captured Wight,

    the YouTube algorithm gods somehow directed me to “Band on the Run” performed by Dave Grohl at the 2010 Paul McCartney Tribute at the White House. Since you like the song, here it is…

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M3yomVIvN1A
    🕊

  22. loco73:
    Ten Bears,

    Yep. That would indeed be something to see. “The Further Adventures of Arya and The Hound”. By the way that image is awesome. Love the artwork!

    ❓ Off-Topic, But Not Really
    (Bear with me):

    Watching a Star Wars movie many years ago, I could swear I saw Emperor Palpatine plunge to his fiery death from way up on scaffolding, down into an inferno at the bottom.

    I gave up watching Star Wars movies after the dreadful “The Force Awakens.” Yet, it’s my second-hand understanding that in the most recent sequel Palpatine somehow came back, alive and well. Is that what happened?

    Asking for a friend. 🐓🐓

  26. If there were any doubt that Maisie Williams would be ideal for an animated spinoff series, here she is in a brief (0:59) snippet voicing Cammie MacCloud in the animated series gen:Lock:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3t7Gey1bbLo

    I know she also voiced Goona in “Early Man.” I haven’t seen that movie.

  27. Ten Bears: ❓ Off-Topic, But Not Really(Bear with me):

    Watching a Star Wars movie many years ago, I could swear I saw Emperor Palpatine plunge to his fiery death from way up on scaffolding, down into an inferno at the bottom.

    I gave up watching Star Wars movies after the dreadful “The Force Awakens.”Yet, it’s my second-hand understanding that in the most recent sequel Palpatine somehow came back, alive and well. Is that what happened?

    Asking for a friend. 🐓🐓

    Well you didn’t miss much. The Disney Sequel Trilogy is a piece of garbage…I despise, nay, hate those movies with a passion. Speaking for myself, I refuse to consider them canon. The last “Star Wars” movie I saw in theatres was almost four years ago. I didn’t even bother seeing “The Rise Of Skywalker” in theatres or on Disney Plus…or otherwise.

    And yes what you said, happened… Palpatine is back (I won’t spoil it further…if you can even spoil a pile of cinematic thrash)…which is an example of the creative laziness and bankruptcy which is the norm at Lucasfilm these days. In the process they managed to mess up established canon, basically destroy the Original Trilogy and classic characters. Palpatine was brought back in the most idiotic and convoluted way possible, almost acknowledging the failure of the Sequels and the need to do something dramatic to given them some umpff. Didn’t work.

    If it wasn’t for “The Mandalorian” and “The Bad Batch”… you could write the whole franchise off. There are a few more projects on the way to which I look forward with cautious optimism, like “Star Wars Andor” (a prequel series to “Rogue One,” almost finished filming), The “Star Wars Obi Wan Kenobi” miniseries (currently filming) , “The Book Of Boba Fett” (miniseries, coming out in December), “Ahsoka” and “Rangers Of The New Republic” (those last three are related to “The Mandalorian”). There is “Star Wars Visions” coming out in September, a bunch or Japanese animé inspired “Star Wars” stories. These projects are meant for Disney Plus.

    There is an upcoming Patty Jenkins directed movie, “Rogue Squadron”, due out in December 2023 which would mark the return of the franchise to the big screen… about which I’m not too enthused. There are a few more things brewing…but I don’t care about those.

    Yet, inspite the dark Disney years and the systematic downgrading of Lucasfilm and diminishing of the franchise under the House Of Mouse, there was one, shining, bright spot for me. Namely “Rogue One A Star Wars Story” (2016) which despite all the odds being against it, turned out to be one the best movies I’ve seen in years and definitely the top “Star Wars” movie together with “The Empire Strikes Back”. For me the movie is almost miraculous for the simple fact that it exists…LOL. Gareth Edwards and Tony Gilroy did a fantastic job. A gritty, adult oriented, war movie set in the “Star Wars” universe. Loooove it!

    As for “Solo A Star Wars Story” (2018)…that is almost like a pointless side adventure, a barely (and I mean barely) tolerable mediocrity one watches when there’s absolutely nothing else or deadly boredom becomes a threat.

    I’ll leave it at that, because I’ll only get more pissed off…and I’ll start going off on a tangent to some unpleasant places…

  28. loco73,

    ”…there was one, shining, bright spot for me. Namely “Rogue One A Star Wars Story” (2016) which despite all the odds being against it, turned out to be one the best movies I’ve seen in years and definitely the top “Star Wars” movie together with “The Empire Strikes Back”. For me the movie is almost miraculous for the simple fact that it exists…LOL. Gareth Edwards and Tony Gilroy did a fantastic job. A gritty, adult oriented, war movie set in the “Star Wars” universe. Loooove it!”

    If I see “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story” (2016) in my cable TV lineup, I’ll check it out based on your recommendation. However, what stood out for me in your comment was the mention of Tony Gilroy.
    Tony Gilroy wrote the screenplay for “The Cutting Edge” (1992), one of my Top Ten Guilty Pleasure movies. (It was so good it really wasn’t a guilty pleasure).*

    * Six Degrees of GoT: “A Cutting Edge” co-starred Roy Dotrice (played Pyromancer Hallyne in GoT S2, and narrated ASOIAF audiobooks).
    * Six Degrees of Lost: “A Cutting Edge” also co-starred Terry O’Quinn.

    ⛸⛸ 🏒

  29. Ten Bears:
    loco73,

    ”…there was one, shining, bright spot for me. Namely “Rogue One A Star Wars Story” (2016) which despite all the odds being against it, turned out to be one the best movies I’ve seen in years and definitely the top “Star Wars” movie together with “The Empire Strikes Back”. For me the movie is almost miraculous for the simple fact that it exists…LOL. Gareth Edwards and Tony Gilroy did a fantastic job. A gritty, adult oriented, war movie set in the “Star Wars” universe. Loooove it!”

    If I see “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story” (2016) in my cable TV lineup, I’ll check it out based on your recommendation. However, what stood out for me in your comment was the mention of Tony Gilroy. Tony Gilroy wrote the screenplay for “The Cutting Edge” (1992), one of my Top Ten Guilty Pleasure movies. (It was so good it really wasn’t a guilty pleasure).*

    * Six Degrees of GoT: “A Cutting Edge” co-starred Roy Dotrice (played Pyromancer Hallyne in GoT S2, and narrated ASOIAF audiobooks).* Six Degrees of Lost: “A Cutting Edge” also co-starred Terry O’Quinn.

    ⛸⛸🏒

    Gilroy is a veteran and has an impressive list of credits. He directed a favourite movies of mine “Michael Clayton” (amongst others) and wrote the screenplay for “Beirut” (2018) another movie I really like. Tony Gilroy, alongside of Stephen Schiff (The Americans”, is also one of the writers and showrunners of the upcoming “Star Wars Andor” Disney Plus series.

    PS I really like to watch “Cutting Edge” whenever I can, Moira Kelly, D.B Sweeney and Terry O’Quinn are great in it. Roy Dotrice from “Game Of Thrones” is in it as well.

  30. Ten Bears,

    Just an FYI, “Rogue One” as a movie was literally born out of the first few lines in the opening blurb from “A New Hope”. I’ll say no more except that I’d say, if you can, you should watch “Rogue One”, immediately followed by ” A New Hope” . You’ll understand why when you see both…

  34. Jai: I’m not really a fan of animated shows, and I don’t think it’s a great choice for a “serious” franchise like GoT whose credibility has already been damaged by the way GoT ended up.

    The Season 8 Blu Ray topped the sales charts, the finale was the most watched episode in HBO history, Season 8 received 32 Emmy nominations, winning 12, including Best Drama, and GOT continues to be one of the highest in demand shows two years after it ended. This idea that its credibility was hurt in any way exists only in your imagination.

  36. Ten Bears,

    Yeah, I’ve been busy with work. And HOD news has been pretty scarce of late. I’ll be on the lookout for the musical interlude!

  37. I’m not a massive fan of animated series but I’m actually pretty damn excited to see these. My only hope is that they are made for towards adults rather than dumbed down to appeal also to kids (rare with animated shows I feel).

  38. Young Dragon: The Season 8 Blu Ray topped the sales charts, the finale was the most watched episode in HBO history, Season 8 received 32 Emmy nominations, winning 12, including Best Drama, and GOT continues to be one of the highest in demand shows two years after it ended. This idea that its credibility was hurt in any way exists only in your imagination.

    I love GOT and consider it the best TV show of all time but even I cannot say it’s credibility was not hurt from criticism of the final two seasons. Largely this is centred on the final three episodes but started in season 7 and grew louder in my view.

    Having recently done a rewatch S7 I feel it only has minor issues due to pacing/teleporting (but does contain one of the weakest ever episodes – Beyond the Wall). S8 I feel was loved right up until the Long Night then was subject to hugely over the top criticism and targeted review bombing on a massive scale.

  39. Jon Snowed,

    Maybe it would help if you explain what you mean by “lost credibility.” Yes, the criticisms on the internet were loud, but the GOT fandom on the internet make up such a small fraction of GOT’s audience. I provided a more reliable way of determining the final season’s reception, viewership numbers and Blu Ray sales. Regardless, we’ll know soon enough. If large numbers of people watch House of the Dragon’s series premiere, which I suspect they will, then we’ll know GOT’s credibility wasn’t hurt in the slightest.

  41. Lost credibility in that it’s clear a proportion (I’d still say minority) hated the final two seasons. Whilst this was definitely loudest on social media that echo chamber transcended to real life from my experience. For example I know people who loved Game of Thrones but now say they hate it all because of how the final two seasons went. In my mind that’s daft and it’s clear they were influenced by those who trolled the final two season with over the top criticism (deliberately spam rating episodes 1 out of 10 on IMDB, spreading false rumours about the cast and producers etc.). The odd thing is most of the criticism seems to centre on Dany going mad (many people predicted this) or Jon not killing the Night King, I think a lot of people were disappointed that GOT didn’t end at the Long Night too so some of this was simply they didn’t get what they wanted from the ending.

  42. Jon Snowed,

    If we’re talking individually, sure, season 8 lost credibility with some viewers. It lost credibility with some viewers, mainly book readers, during season 5. For some it was even before then, during the season 4 finale after the show omitted some things. It was my understanding that the original poster was speaking in terms of the general audience, that the show’s credibility was damaged for most viewers, even though the signs point to that not being the case. Like I said, we’ll have a better idea of where the show stands once the viewership numbers of The House of the Dragon’s series premiere come in.

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