Tuesday 19 April 2011

GAME OF THRONES renewed for a second season

Based on the first episode's bullish performance, Game of Thrones has been renewed for a second season by HBO.

Season 2 will enter production in the summer and should air around this time next year. It will be based on the second novel in the Song of Ice and Fire book series, A Clash of Kings, though the title will remain Game of Thrones. Once again, George R.R. Martin will be contributing a script, whilst the bulk of the work will remain with David Benioff and D.B. Weiss. It is not clear at the moment how many episodes the second season will be.

Obviously, excellent news. Let the casting speculation for Stannis, Melisandre, Davos and all the rest of them begin :-)

UPDATE
Season 2 will have 10 episodes, according to the head of HBO. That's disappointing. Given the greater length of Kings over Thrones, some critics were hoping for at least 11 and maybe 12 episodes. Fitting everything into 10 is going to be a challenge.

12 comments:

  1. Yessss, couldn’t be happier.

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  2. This is fantastic! "A Clash of Kings" is my favorite book, and I think it will make a very cool season for the series (for one thing, it has lots of Tyrion, plus some good battles).

    That was certainly fast on HBO's part.

    I'm hoping that Game of Thrones (hopeful) success leads to some other fantasy series being made by HBO's competitors (aside from Camelot on Starz).

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  3. I hope they get more episodes. "Winter is Coming" was very strong, but my one gripe with it was that it felt a bit too rushed (of course, this may become less true as the series goes on). I dread to think how fast they'd have to run through CoK if they only have ten episodes.

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  4. "I'm hoping that Game of Thrones (hopeful) success leads to some other fantasy series being made by HBO's competitors (aside from Camelot on Starz)."

    I feel the same way, but sadly I don’t think anyone but HBO can do such a show without it looking like Xena or Hercules.

    I would really like to se a TV version of the first 3 Rift War books, “The Magician” might be my all time favorite fantasy book.

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  5. Would be cool for season three to do two seasons and mix in the Iron Born and Dorne Chapters. I think it would be a perfect fit.

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  6. I think Season 3 would definitely have to include the ironborn chapters from AFFC, as they happen halfway through ASoS. That's also a benefit as it keeps Asha in the audience's mind before she comes back later on, rather than us going a year without seeing her.

    The Dorne chapters happen chronologically after the end of ASoS, however, so they'd have to be held back for the season that covers AFFC and part of ADWD.

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  7. I thought that "The Princess in the Tower" Is the only Dorne chapter post ASOS? Been a while i just reread them so i might be off... And for the Dorne Chapters "The Iron Captain" Is the only post ASOS?

    - Anon from Above

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  8. Oh yeah, 'The Iron Captain' is post-ASoS, that's somewhere early in AFFC's timeline. All the Kingsmoot chapters take place in ASoS before the Red Wedding though (Joffrey, Tyrion and Tywin discuss the events of the Kingsmoot halfway through ASoS, in fact).

    As for the Dorne chapters, IIRC the 'Captain of the Guard' chapter references the death of a major character that happens right at the end of ASoS, so it and the chapters that follow have to happen at the very least a few days later (allowing time for ravens to travel from King's Landing to Sunspear).

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  9. I'll be shocked if they don't bump up to 12 episodes...if the ratings stay good.

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  10. "Season 2 will have 10 episodes, according to the head of HBO. That's disappointing. Given the greater length of Kings over Thrones, some critics were hoping for at least 11 and maybe 12 episodes"

    I humbly disagree, of the first three books ACOK is probably the book with the least movement.

    Dany, Arya, Cat and Jon have very little plot movement in that book. They all have great endings, but there is a lot of walking, walking and more walking involved.

    The Tyrion and Stannis parts are the meat of that book, the rest of the plotlines are waiting for a Storm of Swords to begin.

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  11. "The Tyrion and Stannis parts are the meat of that book, the rest of the plotlines are waiting for a Storm of Swords to begin."

    Stannis has what, 3 chapters through the eyes of Davos? Plus one or two through Cat. If anything, Theon and the Ironborn have just as much going on.

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  12. Even so, I feel Stannis is at the center of that books main driving plot, together with Tyrion.

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