The strength of the Game of Thrones franchise shows no sign of fading for anything: not the lack of a conclusion to the films, a conclusion surrounded by controversy, or even the attempts of a prequel or sequel at MAX. While House of the Dragon is on hiatus and A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms has yet to premiere, rumors of a movie are already circulating in Hollywood. And with that, speculation, of course. But the source is extremely reliable.

The news posted by The Hollywood Reporter is signed by journalist James Hibberd, who has always had privileged access to the creators of the series and MAX. “The world of Game of Thrones may finally end on the big screen,” he writes in his article entitled “‘Game of Thrones’ Movie in Early Development at Warner Bros.” Fans went crazy.

I’ve talked more than once in Miscelana about how George R.R. Martin dreamed of his Westerosi universe coming to the big screen like Tolkien’s Middle Earth with The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit. Still, he also understood that if he were to turn his books into a movie, it would be impossible to summarize everything in three hours. Not even in nine, if it were three three-hour movies. No, Game of Thrones as a series was perfect. Until it wasn’t.

When the HBO series became a worldwide sensation and expectations were huge, there were talks that the last seasons would, in fact, be movies. As the THR article recalls, “David Benioff and Dan Weiss even discussed concluding the series with three feature films instead of its final season in 2019. However, internally at the platform, this idea did not move forward.

It seems that the success of House of the Dragon rekindled the flame of the big screen. According to James Hibberd, “Warner Bros. has been quietly developing at least one film set in George R.R. Martin‘s epic fantasy universe” and “several sources describe the project as being in very early development, with no filmmaker, cast or writer yet attached. But the company is interested in exploring the idea of ​​Westeros invading theaters.”

In addition, the success in the Batman universe with the acclaimed The Penguin highlights Marvel’s successful strategy of mixing audiences and windows to occupy the imagination and consumption of the franchise’s most avid fans. Dune is MAX’s latest bet: if the premiere of Dune: Prophecy is successful, it reinforces the possibility of a Game of Thrones film. Crossing media is the executives’ latest bet.

What fans are already starting to speculate about is what moment in the saga a Game of Thrones film would focus on? There is a lot of material to be explored. One of the favorites has already been turned into a series: A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms has always been highly requested by readers. But there is more.

Experts suspect and bet that a film could be about Robert’s Rebellion, which occurred about 30 years before Game of Thrones and marked the end of the Targaryen Dynasty until Daenerys’ (Emilia Clarke) attack at the end of the series. That would be my favorite, and I’m rooting for it. But there’s the Blackfyre Rebellion, as well as the one that is in development to become a series, Aegon’s Conquest. And let’s not forget that we can consider Snow to be a good sequel, right? Hibberd agrees with me, as he commented in his article that “A tantalizing unexplored territory remains the stories set after the original series, since all the successor projects filmed so far have been prequels.”

I see some challenges for Snow:

1- Surviving the pitfalls left by the conclusion of the series. By killing off the most beloved character (Dany) and exiling the second most beloved, Jon Snow (Kit Harington), Westeros is at the mercy of many people who don’t have a fan club…

2- Convincing the stars to return. Kit Harington may be in, but Emilia Clarke has always said she has no desire to return to play Daenerys (whose body was taken by Drogon to a place where fans believe it is possible to revive her). Even more averse to the idea of returning, and more essential than Emilia as he was the most awarded actor in the cast, would be Peter Dinklage as Tyrion Lannister. Without him, it will be difficult to continue the story.

3- Tying up the loose ends of the stories. House of the Dragon not only highlighted the issue of the prophecy of Ice and Fire but also added details that differ from what we saw in Game of Thrones.

These are not insurmountable challenges, right? But, for now, Snow is shelved. As a series, anyway.

And if it is, as is the most likely possibility, Robert’s Rebellion will be extremely interesting. The most interesting option, perhaps. This is because it would solve two issues at once: the first being that being so close to Game of Thrones, if it were a series, the comparisons would be more damaging, but, if it were a film, the familiarity could end up being used in its favor. After all, it’s Lannisters versus Starks, Targaryens versus Baratheons, just names and houses that we already know and love, without going through the current discoveries in House of the Dragon, for example.

Secondly, and most importantly, even with the flashbacks we saw in the series, the film that retold the rebellion would have in its favor several points that fans would love to know more about or the real version. For example: why didn’t Lyanna Stark tell her family that she was with Rhaegar Targaryen for love? And many other secrets, of course, without having to use the actors from the series.

The only downside? We wouldn’t have dragons… They will be extinct in the final part of House of the Dragon and will only come back to life with Daenerys Targaryen.

It’s still too early to be sure if Game of Thrones will actually venture into theaters, but the bet depends more on the success of the new Lord of the Rings films that Warner is making (Amazon continues with the prequel The Rings of Power) and the Harry Potter series for the platform. Let’s keep an eye on it.

The only certainty is that no matter the platform or the part of the saga, Ramin Djawadi‘s music is a must. Do you agree?

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