George R.R. Martin hints at possible ‘Game of Thrones’ spinoff series

The sixth season of “Game of Thrones,” the hit television series based on George R.R. Martin’s “A Song of Ice and Fire” books, begins Sunday, but panicked fans are already dreading the show’s eventual end.

Yet in an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Martin hinted that the end might not really be the end for the HBO show.

“There is certainly no lack of material” for a possible spinoff, Martin said. “Every episode of ‘The Naked City’ ... ended with a voice-over: ‘There are 8 million stories in the naked city. This has been one of them.’ There are 8 million stories in Westeros as well ... and even more in Essos and the lands beyond. A whole world full of stories, waiting to be told ... if indeed HBO is interested.”

It’s hard to imagine that HBO wouldn’t be interested. The show has become a huge hit for the network, averaging nearly 7 million viewers per episode. It’s also racked up 26 Emmy awards, including a win for drama series last year.

Martin even has an idea for a spinoff: “The most natural follow-up would be an adaptation of my ‘Dunk & Egg’ stories,” he said, referring to his three novellas that take place in the same world of “A Song of Ice and Fire,” but are set about a century earlier.

“Each of the novellas could easily be done as a two-hour stand-alone movie for television; that would probably be the ideal way to do them, rather than as an ongoing weekly series,” Martin said, noting that the stories are much “lighter” in tone than “Game of Thrones.”

Any spinoff series would likely come after “Game of Thrones” completes its run. The show’s sixth season begins on April 24; it’s expected that two more seasons will follow, possibly with fewer episodes.

Perhaps the biggest question Martin’s fans have still doesn’t have an answer, however: There’s no word yet on a possible release date for “The Winds of Winter,” the sixth novel in his “A Song of Ice and Fire” series.

Asked by Deadspin about the novel’s progress, Martin gave a characteristically vague reply: “Of course I have pages. I had pages five years ago. How anyone can believe I don’t defies belief. I’ve posted three different sample chapters on my website over the past few years, and read another four or five chapters at cons.”