George RR Martin Wants ‘House Of The Dragon’ To Begin A ‘Marvel Or Star Wars Model’

Tonight marks the launch of House of the Dragon, the first of a number of upcoming Game of Thrones spin-offs. It’s a prequel, set long before the original, focused on the Targaryen house. It was also sheparded directly by author George RR Martin, unlike the final seasons of Game of Thrones, giving some fans hope it could recapture some of that old magic again.

Martin is being pretty clear about what the goal is here for both the spin-off, himself and HBO. They are building another pop culture “universe” between this and other projects. Here’s what he told the Wall Street Journal:

“How many shows will make it to air? I don’t know, but I hope the answer will be several,” Martin said. “And we’ll have something akin to the Marvel or ‘Star Wars’ model by the time it’s all settled.”

So, is this is a good thing or a bad thing? It depends who you ask.

The MCU and Star Wars are two of the most successful, popular IPs in the world. Marvel is probably the most successful, given its box office totals. And both are owned by Disney. While WB/Discovery/HBO owns DC, that has been something of a mess the past decade plus, and regardless, they want more aces in their pocket. Game of Thrones certainly had its moment where it was as influential as anything else airing, though by the end, much of the wind went out of its sails. Now, House of the Dragon and a long list of other potential spin-offs in the works are attempting to change that.

The model here is more Star Wars than Marvel, given the timelines involved. The MCU features characters all existing in roughly the same time period, and coming together for occasional crossovers and team-ups. Right now, there’s only one Thrones show idea that’s directly set in the era of the original, a proposed Jon Snow spin-off. Everything else is spanning the course of history, probably even more spread out from the movie/show timelines of Star Wars, but certainly more similar to that model.

Everyone wants to make a “cinematic universe” but essentially no one has been able to except Marvel in any truly meaningful capacity. Even Star Wars has been plagued with dramatic ups and downs with its new film trilogy, standalone movies and its show offerings so far. Some high highs, but low lows, and generally, I’d argue both with Star Wars and Marvel, there’s some sense of fatigue starting to set in here among fans.

But Game of Thrones is only just starting this experiment with House of the Dragon, which so far is reviewing decently, if not a tiny bit under the first show. No one, even Martin, know what other series are actually going to make it to air, but knowing HBO, probably at least a handful, as they want to recapture the lightning in a bottle that was the original Thrones. And now they have Amazon’s massive Lord of the Rings series to compete with too. We’ll see how this all plays out, but I know one thing: this means Winds of Winter will take even longer to get here.

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