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Brian Helgeland (Man on Fire, A Knight’s Tale) was writing the Game of Thrones spin-off 10,000 Ships, a series that author George R.R. Martin signed off on, but the show was never made. Helgeland has now shared more insight into the project and what it was aiming to be.
Speaking to Inverse, Helgeland said his script “came out great,” but the powers that be believed the idea for the show was “too far removed from the pillars of the original,” he said. While HBO never moved ahead with 10,000 ships, that doesn’t mean it’s dead and buried for good.
“Nothing is ever dead,” Helgeland said.
The story would have focused on Queen Nymeria, and the narrative would have been similar to the Biblical story of Moses, Helgeland said. The series would have taken place 1,000 years before the events of Game of Thrones.
“Her country gets ruined and her people are forced to live on the water, which is why the show was called 10,000 Ships,” he explained. “They end up having to leave and find a new home like the Israelites leaving Egypt. She’s leading all these people, trying to hold everyone together but things are always in danger of falling apart as they travel around a fictionalized version of the Mediterranean, looking for a new home to settle in.”
As Helgeland envisioned it, the show would have featured characters living a nomadic life on a “raft city,” or a “big floating city.” Sometimes, characters would go ashore, but they would eventually get driven off the land and back to the ocean to find “their version of the promised land.”
“I met with George R.R. Martin to pitch him the idea, which he signed off on. Sadly, I didn’t work with him closer, but I would have done if the show was picked up,” he said. “It was kind of like Ray Harryhausen’s Sinbad films mixed with The Odyssey. In a way, Nymeria is Odysseus, but instead of a 12-person crew, she’s responsible for every citizen in this floating city-state. My work is still there if HBO wants to pick it up. I enjoyed my time developing it, and you just never know.”
10,000 Ships sounds somewhat similar to another Game of Thrones spin-off idea, 9 Voyages, which takes place at sea and focuses on the Sea Snake character. This show is moving ahead, although it has shifted from being a live-action show to an animated series due to cost issues.
Martin said a live-action version of 9 Voyages could have been “prohibitively expensive” to make. That’s because a good portion of the show takes place at sea and the rest would be set at a different port each week, Martin said.
While 10,000 Ships and 9 Voyages might never get made, HBO is moving ahead with House of the Dragon Season 2, which comes out this June. Another spin-off, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms: The Hedge Knight, is coming in late 2025.
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