The Jon Snow sequel is dead. Long live the Arya Stark sequel. Maybe.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, HBO has brought writer Quoc Dang Tran (Drops of God) aboard to revive the Game of Thrones sequel concept–but with a significant twist. The new approach would shift the action to Essos and potentially center on Arya Stark, the character Maisie Williams played across all eight seasons of the original series.
This comes after HBO shelved Kit Harington‘s proposed Jon Snow series, which the network reportedly deemed “too much of a bummer.” And honestly? That assessment tracks.
Why the Jon Snow Pitch Failed
Harington’s original concept–developed with writers from his drama series Gunpowder–was bleak by design. Jon would be living alone north of the Wall, broken by trauma. He’d have chased off Ghost. Thrown away Longclaw. Spent his days building cabins and burning them down again.
Harington wanted Jon to die. He didn’t want him to be a hero.
You can see how this mirrors Harington’s own post-Thrones experience–he’s been open about entering rehab after the show ended. But HBO apparently looked at a pitch about a PTSD-riddled exile with no interest in adventure and said: pass.
George R.R. Martin, in his extensive THR interview, confirmed the network “didn’t see a future” with that version. And just recently, Harington told press he doesn’t “want to go anywhere near” Jon Snow again.
So that door seems pretty firmly closed.
The Arya Alternative
The new development shifts focus to Arya, who sailed off toward uncharted waters west of Westeros in the series finale. Tran’s involvement suggests HBO is looking for something with a different energy–Drops of God balanced mystery with globe-trotting adventure, which maps better onto Arya’s wanderer setup than Jon’s hermit arc.
Williams expressed interest in returning as recently as 2022, telling GQ she’d be open to exploring what happened to Arya. Whether that enthusiasm holds four years later is anyone’s guess.
The Essos setting is smart, if it holds. It sidesteps the need to address what happened to the other surviving characters in Westeros–Sansa ruling the North, Bran on the Iron Throne, Tyrion as Hand. Arya in Essos can be its own thing without requiring the entire ensemble to reassemble.
Though I’ll admit: part of me wonders if “Essos adventure” is just code for “cheaper to produce than Westeros politics.”
The Bigger Picture: HBO’s Thrones Strategy
This development doesn’t exist in a vacuum. HBO currently has:
- House of the Dragon entering its third season (though Martin’s relationship with showrunner Ryan Condal is, in Martin’s own words, “abysmal”)
- A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms premiering January 18, 2026
- A Sea Snake spinoff that’s quietly shifted from live-action to animated
- An Aegon’s Conquest project being developed as both a potential series and a feature film
The franchise isn’t lacking for content. What it’s lacking is a direct sequel that connects to the characters audiences spent a decade with. Every other project is a prequel.
An Arya series would be the first continuation of the original timeline. That’s a big swing–and one that HBO is clearly approaching with caution. The network told THR they’re “very interested and excited by the prospect of a sequel but also keenly aware of how high the bar of execution needs to be.”
Translation: they know the finale divided fans, and they’re not going to greenlight something that reminds everyone why they were mad.
The Martin Complication
One detail from THR that deserves attention: Martin’s creative involvement with HBO has become fraught. He describes his relationship with Dragon showrunner Condal as “abysmal” and was reportedly told to “step back” from the show entirely after a contentious Zoom call where he allegedly declared, “This is not my story any longer.”
For any sequel, this matters. Martin’s books will end differently than the show, and he’s explicit about not wanting to “canonize” the TV ending. Whether an Arya spinoff can navigate that minefield remains to be seen.
The Risk Nobody’s Discussing
Here’s my concern: Arya’s appeal was always tied to her journey, not her destination. The training montages, the revenge arc, the Night King kill–those worked because they were building toward something. A sequel has to find new stakes for a character who already completed her arc.
“Arya explores Essos” sounds fun in a pitch meeting. But exploration without purpose is just travelogue. If the show can’t give her something to fight for–something that matters as much as the list of names she carried for eight seasons–it risks feeling like an extended epilogue nobody asked for.
My bet: this stays in development for years, or morphs into something unrecognizable before cameras ever roll. HBO is gun-shy after the finale backlash, and “very early development” is where ambitious ideas go to quietly die. But if they do pull it off, Arya in Essos could be exactly the fresh start the franchise needs.
Big if, though. Massive if.
FAQ: Arya Stark Game of Thrones Sequel Development
Why might an Arya-focused sequel actually work better than the Jon Snow pitch?
Because Arya’s ending left her in motion, not stasis. Jon was exiled; Arya chose to leave. That distinction matters for storytelling momentum. A character actively seeking something new is easier to build a series around than one defined by trauma and withdrawal–especially when HBO already rejected the trauma angle once.
How does George R.R. Martin’s feud with HBO affect potential sequels?
It creates uncertainty about creative alignment. Martin explicitly doesn’t want to canonize the show’s ending, and any sequel inherently does that. If his books end differently–which he’s confirmed they will–an Arya series would be building on a foundation Martin himself considers illegitimate. That’s a tension that won’t resolve easily.
