Last night saw the premiere of the final season of “Game of Thrones.” And as we begin the final story in what is the biggest TV series ever, the folks at HBO are hoping fans understand that there is plenty more on the network that you should stick around for, after the May finale.
Chairman of WarnerMedia Entertainment and Direct-to-Consumer Bob Greenblatt and HBO President of programming Casey Bloys were recently interviewed over at Deadline, and over the course of the discussion, the executives talk the post-’Thrones’ future, and what shows will likely not be part of it.
“‘Game of Thrones’ is a very big show for us, but we’re not just the network of ‘Game of Thrones,’” said Bloys. “There’s a lot of really high quality, really great shows that we do, and that’s going to continue. If you look at the schedule with ‘Euphoria’ and ‘Watchmen’ and ‘The Nevers,’ and ‘His Dark Materials.’ We have more than we’ve ever had in the works. I will personally be sad to see ‘Game of Thrones’ go. As a fan, I love it, but as usual, HBO will survive and we will go on.”
But never forget that just because the mothership series “Game of Thrones” is ending its run, the world created by George R.R. Martin is far from gone for good. In fact, HBO is already beginning production on a pilot episode of the still-untitled prequel series, and it appears that discussions are ongoing about perhaps adding another series or two to the lineup.
“The answer is yes,” said Greenblatt. “We’re having conversations about how do we smartly continue the ‘Game of Thrones’ universe, but we have to be really thoughtful about not killing the golden goose and not putting on shows that aren’t up to that quality level, and how many is too many. We’re having all those conversations. I don’t know yet what will come of all this material, but I think they’ve been smartly developing things that were really good ideas in this universe, and George Martin is involved.”
But that doesn’t mean that all your favorite HBO series are guaranteed to come back and help carry the sizeable gap left by “Game of Thrones.” Bloys flatly denied any current plans for a fourth season of “True Detective,” saying, “No. Nic [Pizzolatto, series creator] is thinking if he’s got an idea, and we’ll wait to see. With the third season, he showed us scripts that were great, and that’s why we decided to do it. So we’ll take a wait-and-see approach, see what he’s thinking.”
As for the future of another big series from the last year of HBO, “Sharp Objects,” there’s little movement on a second season, and the HBO exec thinks that even though folks have been talking about ideas of where to take the show, the network probably won’t be interested.
“They haven’t come to us with anything, and my suspicion is one season was right for that show,” Bloys said. “I can’t imagine getting everybody back. The hard thing about these things that are one season is trying to get everybody back together, but also, it feels like the one season was the right thing for that show. It was the right ending, so I think that’s probably where it will stay.”
And in light of series like “The Sopranos” and “Deadwood” getting film continuations (in the case of the former, a prequel), Greenblatt is asked whether or not we can see another early-HBO prestige series “Six Feet Under” coming back with a revival or film.
“I don’t think that’s a show that will probably come back as many people have gone off to other things,” said the executive.
As you are well aware, “Game of Thrones” is officially back, and with five weeks left for the series, HBO doesn’t have much time to prove to viewers that they need to keep their subscriptions after the battle for the Iron Throne has ended.