Kit Harington announced in a new interview with ScreenRant while promoting his new film “Blood for Dust” that his “Games of Thrones” spinoff centered around Jon Show is “off the table” and no longer in development at HBO. The network declined to comment. News broke in June 2022 that Harington was set to return to his iconic “Thrones” role, which earned him two Emmy nominations (one for supporting actor and another for lead actor in a drama series).
“It was Kit Harington who brought the idea to us,” author George R.R. Martin later confirmed in a blog post. “I cannot tell you the names of the writers/showrunners, since that has not been cleared for release yet but Kit brought them in too, his own team, and they are terrific.”
Now talking to ScreenRant, Harington admitted the team “couldn’t find the right story to tell” so the project is not in active development anymore.
“I hadn’t really ever spoken about it, because it was in development,” Harington said. “I didn’t want it leaked out that it was being developed, and I didn’t want the thing to happen where people kind of start theorizing, getting either excited about it or hating the idea of it, when it may never happen. Because in development, you look at every angle, and you see whether it’s worth it.”
“And currently, it’s not. Currently, it’s off the table, because we all couldn’t find the right story to tell that we were all excited about enough,” he continued. “So, we decided to lay down tools with it for the time being. There may be a time in the future where we return to it, but at the moment, no. It’s firmly on the shelf.”
“Game of Thrones” concluded with Jon Snow’s exile from Westeros as he rides into the Haunted Forest with his direwolf Ghost and the Wildlings to begin a new life. Many fans assumed the spinoff series would pick up with Snow’s adventures with the Wildlings.
Liam Cunningham spoke to Den of Geeklast year and said he was eager to play his “Thrones” character Sir Davos Seaworth again on the Jon Snow series, so much so that he personally reached out to Harington.
“I did send [Kit] a text saying, ‘Better Call Davos,’” Cunningham said. “I haven’t heard anything back. You probably know more than I do. I wish them the best to whoever’s involved in it, and if the check is big enough, I might even show up again!”
Cunningham can rest easy now as the Jon Snow spinoff is no longer happening. However, the “Thrones” universe will continue on HBO and its streaming service Max as “House of the Dragon” returns for Season 2 this summer and “A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms: The Hedge Knight” goes into production.
“The Hedge Knight” recently announced its main cast members. Thespinoff is based around the characters Ser Duncan the Tall and his squire, Egg, featured in the “Tales of Dunk and Egg” books written by Martin. Peter Claffey has been cast as Dunk, while Dexter Sol Ansell has been cast as Egg.
Harington’s film “Blood for Dust” opens in theaters and on digital platforms starting April 19.
