At long last, we have a backup plan for the end of Game of Thrones! The juggernaut of an HBO series is cresting to its final season at some point in the next two years, sending fans everywhere worrying about what they’ll do when there are no more dragons and pouty northern kings and White Walkers (well, we could probably do without them). But now a potential answer has emerged, in the form of a new George R. R. Martin adaptation. Syfy is getting close to ordering a series based on Martin’s novella Nightflyers, per Variety.
Nightflyers, published in 1980, is a series of short stories about eight starship crew members on a vessel—called, what else, the Nightflyer—who get mysteriously plucked off and killed, one by one. Aliens and electronic zombies abound in this sci-fi tale, which was previously adapted for the screen in a largely forgettable 1987 film. Rumblings of a Nightflyers adaptation first popped up back in May, but it’s now close to being ordered to series.
Though Martin is heavily involved in Thrones, he won’t play a role in the production of this Syfy series, Variety reports. Instead, the writer will be too busy writing the sixth book in the Song of Ice and Fire series, The Winds of Winter—as he has been since the release of Book 5, A Dance with Dragons, in 2011.
Of course, Martin has also kept busy with a series of side projects that continually keep him from the Book That Shall Not Be Finished. In July, it was reported that he’ll produce HBO’s development of Who Fears Death, based on the sci-fi/fantasy novel by Nnedi Okorafor. The book is a world away from Westeros, set in a post-apocalyptic version of Sudan in which dark-skinned citizens are oppressed by light-skinned citizens.
He’s also helping HBO develop a spin-off Thrones series. (What, you thought they would let their prized show go without the world’s most elongated goodbye?) Martin and several other writers are working on five () potential concepts, essentially battling it out in the Dragonpit to see which idea shall triumph as the victor, according toaccording to HBO Programming President HBO Programming President ) potential concepts, essentially battling it out in the Dragonpit to see which idea shall triumph as the victor, Casey Bloys. In the end, at least one will get Martin’s approval, giving HBO the steam it needs to keep this Thrones train going for a long, long time.
So, if Nightflyers doesn’t offer the same multi-million-dollar prestige level as Thrones (of course it can’t, but neither can most shows!), we’ll hopefully have several other Martin-approved, HBO-caliber series waiting in the wings.
