Game of Thrones is set to expand its legendary world, but with a twist: George R.R. Martin is pivoting to animation for the spinoffs, inspired by the stunning artistry and storytelling of Netflix’s Blue Eye Samurai. As Martin praises the show’s gorgeous visuals and gripping narrative, he reveals HBO’s close-to-greenlighting of three animated projects that promise to bring the vast, intricate realms of Westeros to life in bold new ways-where live action budgets fall short, animation will soar.
Though the end of Game of Thrones in 2019 dovetailed directly into news that HBO was in development on a slate of spinoff series spearheaded by source material author George R.R. Martin, 2024 only feels like the beginning of a GoT onslaught. House of the Dragon, the only show that’s gone before cameras (besides an entirely different pilot that was shot and scrapped), will return for season 2 this summer. A Knight of Seven Kingdoms: The Hedge Knight, adapting Martin’s Dunk and Egg story, has a greenlight with lofty goals of arriving before year’s end. A Jon Snow series might still be in the works? Easy to believe, but there are no officially announced plans.
But Martin, a writer who loves to tease epic conclusions, continues to pique fan interest with updates on everything else that may or may not be happening in HBO’s Max-driven Westeros universe. And the most recent update concerns a show that is apparently moving at a clip: Nine Voyages, a naval warfare-themed spin following Lord Corlys Velaryon that was previously referred to as The Sea Snake, which was planned for live-action but will now take the form of an animated series.
In a post on his personal site, Martin notes that Nine Voyages was planned on the scale of Game of Thrones and House of the Dragon, but as development went on with showrunner Bruno Heller (Rome, Gotham), it was clear the vision was prohibitively expensive. “The necessity of creating a different port every week,” Martin writes, “from Driftmark to Lys to the Basilisk Isles to Volantis to Qarth to. well, on and on and on. There’s a whole world out there. And we have a lot better chance of showing it all with animation. So we now have three animated projects underway.”
The animated version of Nine Voyages joins two other unnamed animated Game of Thrones projects in development. Martin notes none of them currently have the greenlight from HBO/Max, but adds “we are getting close to taking the next step with a couple of them.” It’s unclear if they’re all destined for Max premieres; later this year, Warner Bros. Pictures will release a fully animated Lord of the Rings film, The War of the Rohirrim, in theaters. The right Thrones story could make the same play.
Pivoting to animation over live-action hasn’t shaken Martin’s enthusiasm for the story, and if anything, it makes him more excited about the potential of adapting even more of his A Song of Fire and Ice stories. And that’s because George R.R. Martin rightfully stans Netflix’s Blue Eye Samurai. AELGAMES’s #2 show of 2023, Blue Eye Samurai honed classic samurai tropes with modern action choreography and dimensional drama. We ate it up and so did Martin.
“I hardly know where to start on this one,” he writes. “Once we started watching it, we could not stop [.] it is violent, visceral, sexy (and more than a little kinky in spots), with amazing action sequences and a cast of well-developed characters, colorful and complex and real. Flawed heroes, villains who are more than cartoons (though they are cartoons, being drawn, after all). It reminded me of some books I read. what was the title of that series, now? Something about a song. “
Blue Eye Samurai shares a notable connection with Game of Thrones: Jane Wu, who supervised the animated series and choreographed much of its action, designed set pieces for both the original series and House of the Dragon. And her work on the live-action series, which required massive amounts of storyboarding and pre-visualization animation, inspired her to reverse engineer her process for Blue Eye Samurai, in which she tried to direct for live-action then convert into cartooning with French studio Blue Spirit.
“I got this idea through [our main] character,” Wu told AELGAMES last November. “She is biracial. So I wanted this production, and when you’re looking at it, to feel like it’s a great blend of both animation and live action. I wanted to show that there is strength in that diversity.”
How will the Game of Thrones universe be reimagined through animation
The Game of Thrones universe will be reimagined through animation by exploring untapped lore and fantastical elements that live-action budgets cannot fully realize. Animation offers the opportunity to vividly depict the magic, creatures, and expansive histories of Westeros and Essos, such as the origins of the White Walkers, the building of the Wall, and distant realms like Yi Ti and the Summer Isles. This format allows for anthology-style storytelling, bringing to life short, rich tales from George R.R. Martin’s extensive lore that might not sustain full live-action series but thrive in animated form. Additionally, animation can portray epic voyages and battles with visual creativity and scale that live-action struggles to achieve, making it an ideal medium to deepen and expand the A Song of Ice and Fire saga beyond the known stories of the Targaryens, Starks, and Lannisters.
How might animation bring new depth to Game of Thrones’ most iconic moments
Animation can bring new depth to Game of Thrones’ most iconic moments by enhancing visual storytelling beyond the constraints of live-action and traditional CGI. Through animation, scenes like the Red Wedding or the epic battles can be reimagined with heightened stylistic and atmospheric effects that emphasize mood, symbolism, and emotional resonance in ways that live-action editing and VFX only hint at. Animation allows for more expressive lighting, dynamic camera angles, and imaginative visual metaphors that can deepen the audience’s immersion in the world’s complex topography and shifting power dynamics. For example, the intricate editing patterns and graphic matches used in the show to connect disparate narrative threads could be amplified in animation to create seamless transitions and symbolic juxtapositions that underscore thematic depth. Furthermore, animation can vividly portray magical and fantastical elements-dragons, White Walkers, and ancient lore-with greater creative freedom, making these moments more visceral and emotionally impactful without the limitations of physical sets or expensive CGI simulations. This medium thus offers a fresh lens to revisit and enrich the series’ defining scenes with bold artistry and narrative nuance.
