HBO has no actual intention to make all of the Game of Thrones prequels it currently has in development.
The US premium channel recently confirmed that it's working on four potential series based on George R. R. Martin's World of Westeros once the main show finishes, with Martin since revealing a fifth prequel series is now also in the offing.
However, HBO president Casey Bloys set the record straight in an interview with Entertainment Weekly that his goal is only to ultimately make one of these potential spinoffs.
"I want to put the prequels in context," Bloys clarified to the magazine. "It should go without saying I love having a show with this much intense interest around it.
"Even the smallest bit of information is a big deal and I appreciate that. But I wanted to make sure fans know this is a really embryonic process. I haven't even seen outlines. In the press at large, everybody said, 'there are four spinoffs' and they assume that means each one is happening and we're going to have a new Game of Thrones show per quarter. That's not what's going on.
"The idea is not to do four shows. The bar set by [producers David Benioff and D. B. Weiss] is so high that my hope is to get one show that lives up to it. Also, this is a long-term plan. Our No. 1 goal is the seventh season this summer and getting the eighth season written and aired."
That's probably disappointing news for Game of Thrones fans, but Bloys wants to assure them that he's most concerned with any prequel living up to the heights of its Emmy-winning predecessor.
"If you only developed one, everything would rest on that one shot," the HBO boss argued. "It's such a special show. I want to make sure that [any prequel] feels worthy. We have some amazing writers who want to take a shot at this. They're also looking at different times in the universe and all will have different feels. This increases our odds of finding one that's unique."
Bloys also confirmed that he'd prefer a continuing drama rather than a limited series, although he stressed that any decisions on that front won't be made in the near future.
"Making Game of Thrones as good as possible is the No. 1 goal, and then we'll see about these scripts," he said. "You're not going to see a situation where the next show in the Thrones universe launches off the back of this one. The show that Dan and David have created will get its proper send off first. We wouldn't want to take away from that in any way."
It was previously reported that none of the current cast of Game of Thrones are expected to reprise their roles in any prequel, since its story will be set much earlier in Westeros history.
For now, HBO and Sky Atlantic are putting the finishing touches on the penultimate season of Game of Thrones before its launch in the UK in July with a super-sized season premiere that will run for 59 minutes.
