The next Game of Thrones | Just Reflections - Issue #18
Hi friends,
I hope you’re all doing great. I’m fantastic. Primarily because of two reasons. One, I’m on holiday, I’m getting lots of rest and having lots of fun so don’t expect a long issue today. The second reason is what I want to write about today and because I’m on holiday, it will be entertainment themed. So let’s not waste much time and jump in.
The next Game of Thrones
The film adaptation of George R. R. Martin’s epic fantasy novels A Song of Ice and Fire, which was adapted into the Emmy Award-winning HBO series Game of Thrones, took the world by storm. When the show was airing, everyone and their friends were talking about it. Tonnes of people watched Game of Thrones. You know a show has gone viral when you have people on Twitter bragging by saying, “Am I the only one who hasn’t watched Game of Thrones?” (Looking at you people who also haven’t watched Squid Game 🙄). No, you’re not the only one. There are several others like looking for an opportunity to feel unique by excluding themselves. Yes, I’m angry, go watch the show, lol.
Game of Thrones was so successful, in fact, that several studios are taking their shot at creating the next ‘Game of Thrones’.
Netflix is taking their swing with The Witcher by Polish writer Andrzej Sapkowski. I absolutely enjoyed the first season. I’ve read none of the books but I played the game created by CD Projekt Red and Henry Cavill’s portrayal of Geralt was absolutely brilliant. Despite its success, it never really hit the mainstream like Game of Thrones. But Netflix is taking another swing with season 2 later this year. We’ll see how that goes. I can’t wait.
Even HBO, who brought the Game of Thrones to the screen (and an atrocious last season), are also taking a swing at repeating their success with House of Dragon, a prequel to Game of Thrones. I know little about it, but the trailer looks good. Although as I’ve shown it will have tonnes of competition when it airs in 2022.
Poster for Amazon Prime's Adaptation of The Wheel of Time
The one I really want to talk about today is Amazon Prime Video’s swing at making the Next Game of Thrones with Robert Jordan’s 14 book The Wheel of Time series. This has been long in the works funded by the deep pockets of Jeff Bezos, so I couldn’t wait to see what we will get. This week we got the first three episodes, and they looked amazing, definitely epic in scale. The cast and their performances are really the biggest parts that brought this show to life for me. I think that together with the thoughtful script and very nuanced female characters give it a great running. Of course there are some changes from the book, some good, some bad. There are also some confusing decisions, but that all happens with these things. So will it win the race and be the next Game of Thrones? It’s only on episode 3, so we’ll how the rest of it goes. But I hope it does because I’d love to see the entire 14 book series unfold, so please check it out and give your support. It’s streaming on Amazon Prime Video.
My primary concern is that people who are already fans will watch it but those who aren’t won’t even know about it or understand its significance. Then it just falls away into the shadows. I really hope not.
The age of the nerds…
Let me close with this. For a long time the genres of Sci-Fi and Fantasy, whilst having massive loyal followings, were just the pleasure of obscure nerdy groups and not really a mainstream thing. But it seems the first two decades of the 2000s, yes the 2000s have had two decades, feeling old yet? Anyway, I digress. The first two decades of the 2000s have definitely been for Sci-Fi and Fantasy as far as film is concerned. Look at this list:
The Matrix (technically 1999, but I’ll count it here since it was right at the edge and the sequels were in the 2000s)
The Lord of the Rings
Harry Potter
Avatar
Pirates of the Caribbean
Smallville
Game of Thrones
All the 26 Marvel Cinematic Universe movies (special mention to Avengers: Endgame which broke Avatar’s long held record and gave us some fantastic cinema experiences)
GIF of cap catching Mjolnir
All the 10 DC Extended Universe movies (special mention to the Dark Knight Trilogy, which I think is the best of the bunch)
My favourite line by Bane on the Dark Knight Rises
I definitely left many out, but these are the ones that come to mind right now that reached mainstream success.
I want to say that I’m loving it and I’m here for it. I hope many more people continue to discover these amazing genres of Sci-Fi and Fantasy and fall in love with them.
Now, back to my holiday and back to work for you 😁. If you like the newsletter, consider sharing it with others on Twitter, WhatsApp or Facebook. Hit the thumbs up or thumbs down below to let me know what you think about the issue.
I hope I’ve given you something to think about this week and I wish you ever-increasing curiosity.
Until next week.
BK
Impactful ideas that challenged my thinking.
I have a lot of interests so I'm always learning all kinds of things, some of which really challenge my thinking. In the Just Reflections newsletter, I'll be sharing with you a summary of the ideas that challenged my thinking recently and hopefully they will challenge yours too and we grow together.
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