George R.R. Martin Reveals a Scrapped ‘Game of Thrones’ Prequel Idea Has Been Revived

‘Game of Thrones’

Courtesy of HBO

As Game of Thrones fans prepare for the season two premiere of House of the Dragon this Sunday, saga creator George R.R. Martin is giving a promising update on a potential new series.

Martin revealed that the Princess Nymeria prequel Ten Thousand Ships is alive again and making progress under a new writer — Eboni Booth, who won a Pulitzer Prize in May for her play Primary Trust.

“She’s an amazingly talented young playwright, and a joy to work with; when not writing and producing her prize-winning plays on- and off-Broadway, she has been kept busy by me and HBO, working on a new pilot for Ten Thousand Ships, a Game of Thrones spinoff about Nymeria and the Rhoynar,” Martin wrote on his blog. “We’re all very excited about this one… though we’re still trying to figure out how we’re going to pay for 10,000 ships, 300 dragons and those giant turtles.”

Set 1,000 years before the events of Game of Thrones, the series tells the story of warrior queen Princess Nymeria — the founder of the kingdom of Dorne — and the surviving Rhoynars who traveled from Essos to Dorne following their defeat by Valyrian and their dragons. HBO had no comment on the update.

The Ten Thousand Ships prequel dates back to HBO commissioning five prequel ideas under different writers to potentially succeed Game of Thrones.

Writer Brian Helgeland (L.A. Confidential) worked on the project and told Inverse earlier this year, “It was kind of like Ray Harryhausen’s Sinbad films mixed with The Odyssey … It came out great, but I think they felt the period of my show was too far removed from the pillars of the original. That’s why it hasn’t been picked up yet, but nothing is ever dead … My script was based on Queen Nymeria and this little blurb about her that was in a Westeros encyclopedia. Essentially, it was the story of Moses but swapping him out for Nymeria. Her country gets ruined and her people are forced to live on the water, which is why the show was called Ten Thousand Ships … They end up having to leave and find a new home like the Israelites leaving Egypt. She’s leading all these people, trying to hold everyone together but things are always in danger of falling apart as they travel around a fictionalized version of the Mediterranean, looking for a new home to settle in. Their life was nomadic. Living in a raft city that was bound together, this big floating city.”

The update shows that HBO is still investing in new Thrones content even amid corporate belt tightening, some ideas being shelved (like the Jon Snow prequel) and an additional greenlit series (A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms) already set to join the network’s lineup.

A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms has gotten a few updates recently, with its lead actors cast and Black Mirror director Owen Harris coming on board.