George RR Martin, author of the Game of Thrones book series that was adapted by HBO for its award-winning fantasy series by the same name, is set to collaborate with Marvel for the screen adaptation of Wild Cards.
The limited series, titled The Drawing of Cards, will be written by a team consisting of comic writer Paul Cornell and artist Mike Hawthorne. Being an initiation into the Wild Cards universe, it will give an account of an alternate history, where Earth is home to individuals with super powers.
According to Marvel comics, “when a human is infected with the alien “Wild Card” virus, the odds are that they will be killed, which is referred to as “drawing the black queen.” Of those that survive, the bulk of them become “jokers”, left with some strange mutated form. A lucky few are called “aces”, those gifted with super powers they can put to use towards heroic goals, or villainous ones.”
The Wild Cards universe comprises of more than 25 novels and 20 short stories, which are written by more than 40 authors over three decades.
In his blog, Martin revealed that Wild Cards was a consequence of his love for superheroes, as a professional writer. He started his career with writing science-fiction, fantasy, and horror. He said, “it eventually led me to a role-playing game called SuperWorld, which in turn led to the creation of the Wild Cards series around 1986-7.”
The series will be based on the stories by Martin, Harold Waldrop and Roger Zelazny.
Recommended
“As my fans may already know, the Wild Cards World holds a special place in my heart, so to have the privilege of announcing that an industry titan like MARVEL is going to produce the narrative from the beginning as a comic book brings me no end of joy,” Martin added in a statement.
Martin has also struck deals with HBO and HBO Max, and has Game of Thrones spin-offs in the works.
In July 2021, reports revealed that HBO Max was developing two new animated shows based on the Emmy-winning fantasy series, which ran for eight seasons between 2011- 2019. Additionally, the House of the Dragon series will also release this year. It will revolve around the story of House Targaryen and will be a prequel, set 300 years before the events in Game of Thrones.