George RR Martin, the writer of A Song of Ice and Fire fantasy novels, is developing a Game of Thrones series prequel play for Broadway, the West End, and Australia, The Hollywood Reporter stated in an exclusive report. The first show will premiere in 2023.
Martin will work with playwright Duncan Macmillan (1984) and theatre director Dominic Cooke on the project. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the play will revolve around the Great Tourney at Harrenhal, a historical event in the world of Westeros, that happened 16 years before the events of the first book and episode.
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“The play will for the first time take audiences deeper behind the scenes of a landmark event that previously was shrouded in mystery. Featuring many of the most iconic and well-known characters from the series, the production will boast a story centred 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,” The Hollywood Reporter stated.
“The seeds of war are often planted in times of peace,” Martin said in a statement to The Hollywood Reporter. “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.”
According to A Wiki of Ice and Fire, the tourney went on for 10 days and at the end of it, Prince Rhaegar Targaryen won the tourney and crowned Lyanna Stark the queen of love and beauty, placing a crown in her lap. This became a scandal since Rhaegar was married to Elia Martell at the time and Lyanna was betrothed to Robert Baratheon. Targaryen and Stark absconded to Dorne not long after this, directly setting off Robert’s rebellion.
The news of the play comes after the announcement that Martin signed a five-year deal with HBO. The first project after the end of Game of Thrones, which ended in 2019, will be a prequel called House of the Dragon, starring Olivia Cooke and Matt Smith. It’s set to air in 2022.