Behold all Game of Thrones enthusiasts, George RR Martin has announced that a live-stage play of the show is being developed in the hope of productions on Broadway, in London’s West End and in Australia, with a target debut of 2023!
“Game of Thrones” live- stage for Broadway
The show might have ended with its eighth season in 2019, but George RR Martin is still not done with his next novel in his Song of Ice and Fire series, the books that led to the making of one of the most popular shows on television.
Who will write the play?
George RR Martin will be writing the story alongside playwright Duncan Macmillan, who also adapted George Orwell’s 1984 for the stage and recently wrote Lungs, a play that streamed live from London’s Old Vic Theater last summer. Dominic Cooke, a former artistic director of the Royal Court Theater, will direct.
“The play will for the first time take audiences deeper behind the scenes of a landmark event that previously was shrouded in mystery,” the play’s official description says. “Featuring many of the most iconic and well-known characters from the series, the production will boast a story centred around love, vengeance, madness and the dangers of dealing in prophecy, in the process revealing secrets and lies that have only been hinted at until now. “The Tourney of Harrenhal was one of the inciting incidents of the major drama in “Game of Thrones.” It has been alluded to in the “Song of Ice and Fire” novel series and then expanded upon in Martin’s encyclopedia-style book “A World of Ice and Fire.”
“It ought to be spectacular,” Martin said in a statement announcing the play on Tuesday.
“The seeds of war are often planted in times of peace,” Martin said, via The Hollywood Reporter. “Few in Westeros knew the cartage to come when highborn and smallfolk alike gathered at Harrenhal to watch the finest knights of the realm compete in the great tourney, during the Year of the False Spring. It is a tourney oft referred in HBO’s Game of Thrones and in my novels, A Song of Ice and Fire, and now, at last, we can tell the whole story … on the stage.”, he added.
What will the play show and what characters will we see?: Prince Rhaegar and Lyanna Stark Love Story
*Spoilers Warning*
The play will be a prequel; set 16 years before the events of Game of Thrones. It will show us “The Great Tourney at Harrenhal”, the crucial events in the past that controlled most of the storyline. We will see the crucial tournament, that has been mentioned in the show several times.
This tournament was held over 10 days and by the end, Prince Rhaegar publicly declared his love for Lyanna Stark, the woman who was already betrothed to Robert Baratheon. This led to another historical moment, the Roberts Rebellion after which, the Targaryens were overthrown. All the events that have taken place in the books and the show, reached that point only because of Rhaegar’s love for Lyanna. It has been seen as an important event, and fans have always wanted to see the events that had transpired in the past.
Fans would get a chance to revisit popular characters like Ned Stark, Robert Baratheon, and Jaime Lannister, along with some of the other characters including Prince Rhaegar Targaryen, Barristan Selmy, Lyanna Stark, Arthur Dayne, and Oberyn Martell.
Not much of Prince Rhaegar and Lyanna was seen in the show, so fans are buzzing to find out what their love story must have been like.
Stay tuned for more updates on the play!
