Scrapped Game Of Thrones Spinoff Detailed By Writer

Summary Helgeland shares details on stalled Game of Thrones spinoff, Ten Thousand Ships, based on Queen Nymeria's story of leading people to find a new home.

Show would have been departure from original, focusing on nomadic life on water while searching for promised land, similar to Moses and Israelites story.

Despite not moving forward, Helgeland's script approved by George R.R. Martin, inspired by Sinbad films mixed with The Odyssey.

Brian Helgeland offers up more details about his Game of Thrones spinoff that didn't end up moving forward. First airing on HBO in 2011, Game of Thrones adapts the book series of the same name by author George R.R. Margin. The mainline series concluded in 2019 with season 8, and it was announced not long afterward that a variety of spinoff shows were in production, including one called Ten Thousand Ships.

In a recent interview with Inverse, Helgeland shares more information about the stalled Game of Thrones spinoff. According to the writer, Ten Thousand Ships would have been a significant departure from the mothership show, which may be why HBO didn't take it further. Check out Helgeland's full comment below:

It came out great, but I think they felt the period of my show was too far removed from the pillars of the original. That’s why it hasn’t been picked up yet, but nothing is ever dead. My script was based on Queen Nymeria and this little blurb about her that was in a Westeros encyclopedia. Essentially, it was the story of Moses but swapping him out for Nymeria. Her country gets ruined and her people are forced to live on the water, which is why the show was called Ten Thousand Ships. They end up having to leave and find a new home like the Israelites leaving Egypt. She’s leading all these people, trying to hold everyone together but things are always in danger of falling apart as they travel around a fictionalized version of the Mediterranean, looking for a new home to settle in. Their life was nomadic. Living in a raft city that was bound together, this big floating city. Sometimes, the characters would come ashore, but they ultimately get driven off the land as they search for a home, their version of the promised land. I met with George R.R. Martin to pitch him the idea, which he signed off on. Sadly, I didn’t work with him closer, but I would have done if the show was picked up. It was kind of like Ray Harryhausen’s Sinbad films mixed with The Odyssey. In a way, Nymeria is Odysseus, but instead of a 12-person crew, she’s responsible for every citizen in this floating city-state. My work is still there if HBO wants to pick it up. I enjoyed my time developing it, and you just never know.

More to come...

Source: Inverse