MORE GAMES

GEORGE RR MARTIN HAS REVEALED THAT FIVE POTENTIAL GAME OF THRONES PREQUEL SERIIES ARE IN DEVELOPMENT. HERE ARE SOME SFX SUGGESTIONS FOR WHAT THEY COULD BE...

IN THE BEGINNING...

Way before the Starks and Lannisters started squabbling over Westeros, the so-called “First Men” ruled the land having made a pact with original residents, the Children of the Forest. In the process, they fought off the White Walkers, established the Night’s Watch and built the Wall to protect the land. With giants still roaming the North freely, this could be a more fantasy-heavy show than Game Of Thrones – exciting, as long as it doesn’t get too Silmarillion.

ROBERT’S REBELLION

Chances are that many of the events that led to Robert Baratheon nabbing the Iron Throne from “Mad” King Aerys II will be explained away in Game

Of Thrones’s final episodes, so this could be redundant. Even so, the hints we’ve already had of this era – Jaime the Kingslayer, the death of Lyanna Stark, Jon Snow’s birth – suggest this was a skirmish almost as intriguing as Westeros’s current battle for supremacy.

MANCE RAYDER

While the big families of Westeros were preoccupied arguing with each other, former Night’s Watch Ranger Mance Rayder managed to build an army of Free Folk north of the Wall, uniting numerous disparate tribes into a force that got the southerners worried. The tale of how a “Crow” turned and subsequently won over his former enemies to the point where they were prepared to die for him could be very watchable – though it would require its cast to spend a hell of a lot of time in the freezing cold.

THE TARGARYEN KIDS

When we first encounter Daenerys, her older brother Viserys is so desperate to reclaim his father Aerys’s crown that he’s arranged for her to

marry Khal Drogo – winning the use of a Dothraki army in the process. The story of how he became such a thoroughly unpleasant, duplicitous individual could be pretty watchable – as could the tale of two royal kids who’ve spent their entire lives in exile in Essos. Maybe there could also be some subtle teases at Dany’s later affinity for dragons.

SOMETHING ELSE ENTIRELY

Westeros is a big place, so why just focus on people and places we’ve already heard of? Game Of Thrones is so caught up in the machinations of the aristocracy that the little guy barely gets a look in. So perhaps the best direction to take would be focusing on the footsoldiers and the ordinary people who have to live with the consequences of decisions made by the Targaryens, Starks, Lannisters and co. Richard Edwards