HBO’s Game of Thrones was one of the biggest critical and rating success stories of the past year; Not just in television, but any form of media. It makes sense then that season 2 of the George R.R. Martin adaptation is one of the most anticpated television returns of next year. But rumors say that HBO is looking to make an even more significant investment in the fantasy show.
According to Winter-Is-Coming.net (a site that has consistently been right on Game of Throne news), HBO is planning to order both season three and four of the show at the same time. They would then film the two seasons back-to-back, much like the Lord of the Rings films. According to the report, many of the film crew in Northern Ireland has been told to plan on nine months of filming next year.
Previous reports said that A Storm of Swords (the third book in the Song of Fire and Ice 7 book series) would be adapted over the course of multiple seasons, so many are assuming that seasons three and four would cover A Storm of Swords.
Personally, I fell in love with Game of Thrones this past summer, so the more the better. I haven’t gotten to the books yet, but they are on my Kindle waiting for me. I’ve heard from many that A Storm of Swords is one of the best of the series, so it’s good to hear that the adaptation will be given more than enough time to stretch its wings.
If HBO does this, they’d be investing a huge amount of money and credibility in the show. While on the surface it’s a great thing, it’s really a double edged sword. Obvious it’s great to see that HBO is investing in genre programming; I firmly believe that without HBO over the past 10 years, we don’t have shows like The Walking Dead on AMC. They showed that genre shows could find an audience. On the other hand, if they heavily invest into the show and the forthcoming seasons don’t hold the quality that season one did, it will scare other networks from investing the start-up costs of ‘niche’ programming.
Season two of Game of Thrones is scheduled to return to HBO in the middle of April.
Source: Winter is Coming
Super excited to continue seeing this story unfold on TV. I started reading the books after season one and was astonished at how closely HBO followed the books.
Your comment on niche programming made me wonder if (in a perfect world) Joss Whedon would, in an attempt to not have another amazing show canceled, ever attempt one of his masterpieces on HBO or Showtime, or for that matter any station other than Fox. At the very least it will be interesting to see the direction his career will take post-Avengers.