Another ‘Game Of Thrones’ Prequel May Be Coming To HBO, But There’s A Problem

There will be blood. And fire.

Yet another Game Of Thrones prequel might be coming to HBO according to a report by Variety. The new show, which is in very early stages, would focus on another bloody chapter in the history of Westeros and the Targaryen dynasty: Aegon’s conquest of the Seven Kingdoms.

This period of Westerosi history is detailed in the same book that House Of The Dragon is drawn on, Fire & Blood, which details hundreds of years of Targaryen history beginning with Aegon’s bloody conquest of the continent. Aegon Targaryen, whose family fled Valyria before it was completely destroyed in the Doom, along with his two sister-wives, Visenya and Rhaenys, use their three massive dragons to conquer six of the seven kingdoms, leaving only Dorne outside their grasp.

Aegon becomes the first king—or high king—of Westeros, uniting the once disparate kingdoms under the Targaryen banner.

This strikes me as exactly the wrong story to tell in a brand new show, especially if there’s not something else between House of the Dragon and this new show, simply because as interesting as House Targaryen is, all that incest gets a bit tiring after a while. And there is so much incest. Fire & Blood is just a great big fictional history of incest and beautiful incestuous bastards with silver-white hair.

There could be other series that come first, of course, with a potential Jon Snow sequel in the works and an adaptation of the Dunk & Egg novellas (which do have Targaryens but are much less Targaryen-centered). I’d love the latter especially, as the Dunk & Egg novellas are, in many ways, even more focused on heraldry and chivalry and knights and tournaments and all the things I love best about Martin’s work.

But even if a show about Aegon’s conquest is many years away and airs well after House of the Dragon wraps up and other spinoffs come out, I’m still not sure that this is the best story to tell in a TV series. It would work quite well as backstory to a much more fascinating time in the Targaryen dynasty: That of King Maegor I Targaryen, also known as Maegor the Cruel.

Maegor was the son of Aegon and Visenya, the second-eldest of Aegon’s sons. His reign followed that of his older brother, the weak and beleaguered King Aenys I Targaryen, a pleasant enough man totally out of his depth when it came to actually ruling. While Aegon was able to subjugate most of Westeros, actually governing the fractious Houses—and a hostile church—proved far more difficult.

This time period, after the conquest, is one of civil strife, civil war and quite a lot of backstabbing, betrayal and worse within the Targaryen dynasty itself—part of the problem with having multiple wives, each loyal to her own children and grandchildren. It’s much richer narrative soil for a new TV series than Aegon’s conquest, though I suppose you could also combine them into one show that spans decades just like House Of The Dragon.

According to Variety’s report, that might even make sense:

As the project is in its very early stages, no writer is currently attached, though sources say that the search is underway as HBO is keen to move forward and get it into development. Sources also say that there may be a feature component to the project, i.e. HBO and Warner Bros. would produce a feature film that would then lead into the potential series, though plans remain in flux at present.

If the film component was the conquest, filled with big-budget dragon battles, and that led to the story of Maegor and his depraved reign and the civil war against his brother’s children, that might just work. Just not yet! I suspect we’ll all have had our fill of Targaryens by the end of House Of The Dragon, whether you’re Team Black or Team Green.