Game Of Thrones Potential Spinoffs Are All Prequels

Don't expect any of those possible Game of Thrones spinoffs to follow any of the further adventures of the characters you know and love from the HBO series.

Author George R.R. Martin, writer of the books the show is based on, cleared up a few rumors about the potential series on his blog. HBO is exploring five different pilot scripts (there were originally just four) with hopes of greenlighting the best one. Martin revealed that each of the scripts are prequels to Game of Thrones, and some may not even be set on Westeros. Also, he'd really like for everyone to stop calling them "spinoffs," because that's not technically what they are.

"I don't think it really applies to these new projects," he said. "What we're talking about are new stories set in the 'secondary universe' (to borrow Tolkien's term) of Westeros and the world beyond, the world I created for A Song of Ice and Fire. It is a world, and a pretty big one, and if there were eight million stories in the naked city back in the '50s, just think how many more there are in an entire world, and one with thousands of years of recorded history. None of these new shows will be 'spinning off' from Game of Thrones in the traditional sense. We are not talking Joey or AfterMASH or even Frazier or Lou Grant, where characters from one show continue on to another. So all of you who were hoping for the further adventures of Hot Pie are doomed to disappointment."

While we don't know anything about the premises for the potential shows, Martin said none of them will be based on the "Robert's Rebellion" storyline or his novellas Tales of Dunk and Egg.

He also said he's been working with each of the four previously announced writers on their ideas, and that a fifth writer was recently brought into the mix. "No, I will not reveal the name here," he said. "HBO announced the names of the first four, and will no doubt announce the fifth as well, once his deal has closed. He's a really terrific addition, however, a great guy and a fine writer, and aside from me and maybe Elio [Garcia] and Linda [Antonsson], I don't know anyone who knows and loves Westeros as well as he does."

In the meantime, he assured fans that he's still working on Winds of Winter, the upcoming sixth installment of A Song of Ice and Fire. But there's no word on whether or not it will arrive before Game of Thrones comes to a close in 2018.

Until then, we still have two more seasons of the show to look forward to, beginning with season 7, which premieres July 16. Check out the first teaser and everything we think we know about the season so far.