Game of Thrones prequel film in development

A Game of Thrones prequel movie is in the works.

Beau Willimon – who has worked on shows including House of Cards and Star Wars spin-off Andor – has tapped to write the script for the film that is in development at Warner Bros.

A recent Hollywood Reporter cover story with Game of Thrones author George RR Martin teased that the picture will be a "Dune-sized feature film" that is based on King Aegon Targaryen's conquest of Westeros – which united six of the seven kingdoms around 300 years before the events of the Game of Thrones pilot episode.

HBO is also developing a TV series that is inspired by the exact same story.

Numerous spin-off projects have come to fruition since Game of Thrones ended on the small screen in 2019. The prequel series A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms premiered earlier this year, while season three of House of the Dragon is set to arrive on screens in June.

Warner Bros. involvement comes at an uncertain time for the studio following its recent $110 billion acquisition deal by Paramount Skydance.

Paramount CEO David Ellison has promised that the deal will "honour the legacy of two iconic companies while accelerating our vision of building a next-generation media and entertainment company".

The eighth and final season of Game of Thrones was heavily criticised by viewers but Kit Harington – who played the prominent character Jon Snow – revealed recently that he was left furious at the online petition to remake the episodes as he felt it was insulting to showrunners David Benioff and D. B. Weiss.

Kit told the New York Times newspaper: "That genuinely angered me.

"Like, how dare you? Sorry, that's just how I feel. I think it was a level of idiocy that can only come about through social media."

The concluding season of Game of Thrones was slammed for its reduced length and plot choices and Kit admits that he and the cast were "tired" by the end of the show's run.

The Industry star told GQ in 2024: "I think if there was any fault with the end of Thrones, is that we were all so f****** tired, we couldn't have gone on longer. And so I understand some people thought it was rushed and I might agree with them. But I'm not sure there was any alternative. I look at pictures of me in that final season and I look exhausted. I look spent. I didn't have another season in me."

Addressing the backlash to the story, Harington added: "Everyone is entitled to their opinion. I think there were mistakes made, story-wise, towards the end maybe. I think there were some interesting choices that didn't quite work."