Game of Thrones stage show coming to Broadway and West End
George RR Martin is developing a stage version of Game of Thrones for Broadway, the West End and Australia.
The bestselling author will bring back well-known characters for the production, based on his series of fantasy books and hit HBO show.
The story will apparently revolve around the Great Tourney at Harrenhal, a contest that happened 16 years before the events of the first book and episode.
“The play will for the first time take audiences deeper behind the scenes of a landmark event that previously was shrouded in mystery,” the official description reads. “Featuring many of the most iconic and well-known characters from the series, the production will boast a story centered around love, vengeance, madness and the dangers of dealing in prophecy, in the process revealing secrets and lies that have only been hinted at until now.”
Martin is working with producers Simon Painter and Tim Lawson, who were behind the successful touring magic production The Illusionists, playwright Duncan MacMillan, who wrote the plays Lungs and People, Places and Things, and director Dominic Cooke, who staged both Jerusalem and Enron.
“The seeds of war are often planted in times of peace,” Martin said in a statement. “Few in Westeros knew the carnage to come when highborn and smallfolk alike gathered at Harrenhal to watch the finest knights of the realm compete in a great tourney, during the Year of the False Spring. It is a tourney oft referred during HBO’s Game of Thrones, and in my novels, A Song of Ice & Fire … and now, at last, we can tell the whole story ... on the stage.”
The as-yet-untitled show will launch in the UK, the US and Australia in 2022. “It ought to be spectacular,” Martin said.
The news follows the announcement that Martin has signed a fiveyear, eight-figure deal with HBO. The first project after the end of Game of Thrones, which finished its award-winning run in 2019, will be a prequel called House of the Dragon, starring Olivia Cooke and Matt Smith. It’s set to air in 2022.