Heading into February of 2018, we’re not yet feeling the extended absence from Game Of Thrones that we’re actually in the midst of. In another couple of months, our internal alarms will go off and we’ll start to feel that itch for more content from the Seven Kingdoms. And that when it will sink in: we’re going to go through all of 2018 without such content, as HBO gears up for what’s sure to be a sensational finale season in 2019. We don’t know the specific return date just yet, though Maisie Williams (who plays Arya Stark in the show) may have spilled the beans recently: ‘Did Maise Williams Just Reveal When Game of Thrones Will Return? Actually, she straight up said the first episode for season eight will debut in April of 2019. This is unconfirmed, but it sounds about right, and it means we have about 15 months to go before we start our final Westerosi journey. For fans facing that long wait, these are some of the things we hope will happen between now and then.
The Cast Needs To Stay Active It’s a small point, but it’s always fun when the cast of this show is active on the interview circuit, on red carpets, or even in other projects. There’s virtually no chance that people will lose interest in Game Of Thrones. If anything, a 15-month layover will probably only increase interest in the show’s return. But just in case, we need to see our favorite cast members making occasional appearances and giving brief interviews, just to keep us on the hook. Plus, any time Peter Dinklage says anything it’s fantastic.
George R.R. Martin Needs To Announce A New Book Well this has been the case for several years now, hasn’t it? While we don’t have statistics to back up this claim, it’s likely fair to say that most fans of A Song Of Ice And Fire have largely given up on the novels. The HBO show went beyond the book timeline a while ago now, and with Martin famously being a slow writer, we can’t expect much. Throw in that Martin seems to be stretched fairly thin working on other projects, and the idea of a sixth book practically seems like that of winning the lottery. That said, there’s a chance this next book, ‘The Winds Of Winter,‘ will actually come out this year. Thanks to an error by a bookstore, a release date in September was leaked to the internet; we just don’t know for sure that it was accurate. Either way, Martin needs to announce this book, preferably sooner than later.
We Need A New Game The history of Game Of Thrones in gaming has been a fairly sharp disappointment. A 2012 console game called Game Of Thrones: Genesis, developed by Cyanide, seemed to be forgotten right out of the gate. A social network and mobile game called Game Of Thrones Ascent may have been even less impactful. Two games have lasted, the first being a Telltale Games title that will presumably keep being updated with new episodes, and the second a themed slot machine that’s still online. The slot game may actually be the purest of the bunch, sticking to the epic HBO series for inspiration without getting too creative. Still, in the end a slot is a slot. An MMORPG by Bigfoot has supposedly been in development for years, but right now the outlook is somewhat bleak. Sometime in the next 15 months, it would be great to see a developer really nail a Game Of Thrones video game.
We Need A Documentary If you’re a real GOT junkie you’ve probably watched some videos online that explain some of the effects and strategies behind the show’ss biggest scenes. If you haven’t, treat yourself to a few. You might want to start with a Making Game of Thrones video behind the scenes of the loot train attack from season seven, which HBO put out last year and which is absolutely amazing to watch. Imagine a full-length documentary of that kind of footage and information. HBO has always excelled in the documentary space, and this would be a great, unexpected way to fill a bit of the gap in a Thrones-less 2018.
A Spinoff Needs To Be Announced Spinoffs have been announced, to be fair. We may be getting as many as five of them. But that’s more or less the extent of what we know at this point. Much like a new book release, the announcement of a new spinoff, along with some fun details, would make a lot of fans happy this year, even if it doesn’t represent new material we can consume just yet.