With prequel series “House of the Dragon” premiering August 21 on HBO, plus multiple other projects including a Jon Snow spinoff in the works as Martin caps off his novels, the author is just getting started when it comes to bringing his fantasy realm vision to the screen. Thankfully, Martin can look to another film and TV titan IP for guidance: Marvel. “The MCU has ‘The Avengers,’ but they also have something offbeat like ‘WandaVision,’” Martin explained to The Hollywood Reporter. “That’s what I hope we can do with these other ‘Game of Thrones’ shows, so we can have a variety that showcases the history of this world. There are only so many times you can do a competition for the Iron Throne.” Martin also grapples with the path for his franchise: “Sometimes I sit around trying to figure out who the hell I am in this whole scenario,” he opened up. “Am I George Lucas? Am I Gene Roddenberry? Am I Stan Lee? How do I relate to this IP? Because those are three different stories as to where they wound up.”
When the THR interviewer asked which of the above Martin would want to be, he admitted that he doesn’t know for sure. “[But] not Stan Lee at the end,” Martin said. “He had no power, no influence. He wasn’t writing any stories. He couldn’t say, ‘Don’t do this character.’ He was just a friendly person they brought to conventions and who did cameos.” Martin added, “To be sidelined on the world and characters that you created, that would be tough.” Currently, Martin is at work finishing the sixth and seventh “A Song of Ice and Fire” series installments, respectively titled “The Winds of Winter” and “A Dream of Spring.” “I have been at work in my winter garden,” Martin wrote in a blog post on his website. “Things are growing…and changing, as does happen with us gardeners. Things twist, things change, new ideas come to me (thank you, muse), old ideas prove unworkable, I write, I rewrite, I restructure, I rip everything apart and rewrite again, I go through doors that lead nowhere, and doors that open on marvels.” Martin joked that while his writing process “sounds mad, I know,” he can promise that his “gardening” will foster the blooming of new story paths separate from the TV show. “What I have noticed more and more of late, however, is my gardening is taking me further and further away from the television series,” Martin hinted about the novel conclusion. “Yes, some of the things you saw on HBO in ‘Game of Thrones’ you also will see in ‘The Winds of Winter’ (though maybe not in quite the same ways)…but much of the rest will be quite different.” Sign Up: Stay on top of the latest breaking film and TV news! Sign up for our Email Newsletters here.
