The world of game of Thrones could finally end up on the big screen.
Warner Bros. has quietly developed at least one film set in George R.R. Martin's epic fantasy universe, The Hollywood journalist he learned.
Multiple sources describe the project as early-stage development, with no director, cast or writer yet attached. But the company is interested in exploring the idea of Westeros invading theaters.
The move could represent a change in the company's strategy regarding ownership. The showrunners of the original game of Thrones (David Benioff and Dan Weiss) famously wanted to conclude the series with three feature films instead of the final season in 2019. Martin was also enthusiastic about the idea of a film and the author told The Hollywood journalist in 2014 those concepts were mocked. But for a long time, HBO was adamantly opposed to the idea and instead wanted to preserve the prestige series as an HBO property.
Since the end of the original series, however, there have been countless changes in the company's executive ranks (with HBO now led by Casey Bloys and the film studio led by Mike DeLuca and Pam Abdy), as well as in the landscape between film and TV. – including a greater desire to move film properties to the small screen and vice versa. There was the box office success of Matt Reeves The Batman launching its acclaimed HBO spin-off The PenguinMax is coming Dune: Prophecy TV series after the success of the two films by Denis Villeneuve, HBO preparing a new interpretation of JK Rowling's Harry Potter novels as a TV series and Warner Bros. developing new The Lord of the Rings movie even as Amazon unveils it The Rings of Power TV program. In short: The idea that a genre property has to be a movie or TV show has become obsolete, so it's no surprise that Thrones it could be the next property to cross the media.
In 2022, HBO launched the hit prequel series House of the Dragonwhich recently aired its second season. The network also has the upcoming prequel series A knight of the seven kingdoms scheduled for 2025. There are also other ideas in development. Tantalizing uncharted territory remains storylines set after the original series, as all subsequent projects filmed thus far have been prequels.
Thrones content has occasionally appeared in theaters previously, with HBO previously giving the original series' lead episodes limited screenings across the country to help promote the show.
— Kim Masters contributed to this report.