‘Game of Thrones’ is coming to Broadway

Sean Furtado

Two years after the series finale of HBO's Game of Thrones, creator George RR Martin is still finding new, creative ways to not finish The Winds of Winter, the sixth and supposedly penultimate book in his A Song of Ice & Fire saga. The latest: a Game of Thrones Broadway show. While there are probably fans out there who have been longing to have an All Singing All Dancing White Walkers on the Great White Way, this will NOT be musical. Instead, the play will be set during The Great Tourney at Harrenhal, which happened 16 years prior to the events of Game of Thrones.

“The play will for the first time take audiences deeper behind the scenes of a landmark event that previously was shrouded in mystery,” reads the official synopsis. “Featuring many of the most iconic and well-known characters from the series, the production will boast a story centered 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 events at the Great Tourney -- a competition involving contests in archery, axe-throwing, jousting, and a seven-sided melee -- led directly to many important parts of A Song of Ice & Fire lore, including Robert's Rebellion, and many of the series major characters were involved, including Ned Stark, Robert Baratheon, Tywin Lannister, Lyanna Stark, Jaime Lannister, Oberyn Martell, and Rhaegar Targaryen.

“The seeds of war are often planted in times of peace,” Martin said in an official statement he probably spent far too much time writing. “Few in Westeros knew the carnage to come when highborn and smallfolk alike gathered at Harrenhal to watch the finest knights of the realm compete in a great tourney, during the Year of the False Spring. It is a tourney oft referred during HBO's Game of Thrones, and in my novels, A Song of Ice & Fire … and now, at last, we can tell the whole story... on the stage.”

The still untitled production will be written by Duncan MacMillan (1984) based on a stor by Martin, directed by Dominic Cooke (The Courier) and produced by Simon Painter and Tim Lawson (The Illusionists). They plan to open the production in New York City, London's West End and Australia, with the curtain rising some time in 2023.

While the play won't be a musical, there still might be some singing. One of the competitions was tourney of singers -- Rhaegar Targaryen's voice was so beautiful it apparently moved Lyanna Stark to tears. You've been warned.

Meanwhile, HBO just signed a new five-year production deal with Martin, with prequel series House of the Dragon due out next year, and five other series currently in various stages of development.