George R.R. Martin says the recently revealed Game of Thrones spinoff focused on Jon Snow has been in the works for years but news never leaked.

The recently-revealed Jon Snow Game of Thrones spinoff show has been in development for years, says George R.R. Martin. Kit Harington’s heroic Jon Snow was last seen returning to the frozen north after being banished from King’s Landing for the murder of Queen Daenerys Targaryen. But that dramatic Game of Thrones season 8 moment was indeed not the end of Snow’s adventures.

It was in fact recently revealed that HBO is in early development on a new Game of Thrones spinoff show that will detail the further exploits of Jon Snow (and presumably his direwolf Ghost). Harington himself is not only confirmed to be returning as Snow, but according to GoT creator Martin, the actor was actually the one who brought the idea for a Snow spinoff to executives. Fully updating the status of the show, which is going under the working title Snow, Martin said “Outlines and treatments have been written and approved, scripts have been written, notes have been given, second and third drafts have been written.”

Related: All 7 Game Of Thrones Shows In Development Explained

At the same time he offered these valuable updates on Snow’s status as an in-development Game of Thrones spinoff, Martin also provided an interesting tidbit concerning how long the show has been in the pipeline. According to the author, Snow was actually put in development almost at the same time as the other spinoffs, but for whatever reason its existence never leaked. He said via his blog:

There are four live-action successor shows in development at HBO. Word got out about three of them some time ago. TEN THOUSAND SHIPS, the Nymeria show, helmed by Amanda Segel. SEA SNAKE, aka NINE VOYAGES, with Bruno Heller. And the Dunk & Egg show, THE HEDGE KNIGHT or KNIGHT OF THE SEVEN KINGDOMS, with Steve Conrad writing. I think some of these were officially announced; in other cases, news leaked out. (These things always seem to leak. There are so many people involved, writers, producers, agents, and everyone has assistants, and there is always the guy who runs the xerox machine, and reporters have sources, and people gossip, so… ) SNOW has been in development almost as long as the other three, but for whatever reason it was never announced and it never leaked… until now.

Indeed the Game of Thrones spinoff pipeline is long and full of projects. The prequel House of the Dragon will of course be the first of these "successor shows" to hit screens, arriving on August 21, 2022. Martin in his recent remarks also mentioned three other known GoT universe projects in Ten Thousand Ships, The Sea Snake and a show widely known as The Tales of Dunk & Egg. Other previously reported spinoff ideas include Flea Bottom and The Golden Empire but the status of these is hazier.

It’s interesting of course that Snow was actually an early GoT universe idea that for whatever reason was kept under wraps while other spinoffs came to be public knowledge. Certainly Jon Snow is one of the most well-known of all GoT characters, so it makes sense that he would be in consideration to return. It could also be argued that Snow, being perhaps the most unambiguously heroic character on GoT, is also a bit of a boring character compared to some others. But HBO is likely banking on the surest thing by bringing back Snow, and it seems they were convinced fairly early on that Harington’s return was in the cards. Now that the world knows about the return of Jon Snow, speculation is naturally running heavy about what other characters may join him. For her part, Brienne of Tarth actor Gwendoline Christie was recently asked if she’d like to come back alongside Snow, and didn’t rule it out. No doubt HBO is keeping some other secrets about Snow, and other Game of Thrones projects about which the public knows nothing.

More: Game Of Thrones Season 8 Never Killed The Show

Source: George R.R. Martin

Dan Zinski is a freelance writer currently contributing to Screen Rant on a regular basis. His previous endeavors include writing on sports, general pop culture, celebrity gossip and various other forms of mindless distraction. To date he has left approximately 100 unfinished screenplays in his wake, the majority of which have thankfully been deleted entirely from our plane of existence. He currently resides wherever his head happens to lie. His hobbies include eating Doritos, playing Atari games, avoiding eye contact and drinking excessive amounts of coffee. His favorite actors include Greta Garbo, Humphrey Bogart, Robert Mitchum, Cate Blanchett, Groucho Marx and Richard Burton. His all-time favorite movie critics are Pauline Kael, Manny Farber and of course himself. He regards Rogue One as one of history's great travesties.