Game of Thrones showrunners reveal their next HBO series

The Game of Thrones showrunners have revealed their next series, leaving Westeros to create another fantastical and ambitious world-building war drama.

HBO has given a straight-to-series order to Confederate from Emmy-winning GoT creators, writers, and producers David Benioff and Dan Weiss.

The show “chronicles the events leading to the Third American Civil War. The series takes place in an alternate timeline, where the southern states have successfully seceded from the Union, giving rise to a nation in which slavery remains legal and has evolved into a modern institution. The story follows a broad swath of characters on both sides of the Mason-Dixon Demilitarized Zone – freedom fighters, slave hunters, politicians, abolitionists, journalists, the executives of a slave-holding conglomerate and the families of people in their thrall.”

“We have discussed Confederate for years, originally as a concept for a feature film,” said Benioff and Weiss in a joint statement. “But our experience on Thrones has convinced us that no one provides a bigger, better storytelling canvas than HBO.”

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Benioff and Weiss will serve as showrunners on Confederate. The series will also have executive producers Nichelle Tramble Spellman (Justified) and Malcolm Spellman (Empire). “There won’t be dragons or White Walkers in this series, but we are creating a world, and we couldn’t imagine better partners in world-building than Nichelle and Malcolm, who have impressed us for a long time with their wit, their imagination and their Scrabble-playing skills,” Benioff and Weiss added.

Also joining as executive producers will be Carolyn Strauss and Bernadette Caulfield from the GoT team.

Stated HBO Programming President Casey Bloys: “As the brilliant Game of Thrones winds down to its final season, we are thrilled to be able to continue our relationship with Dan and David, knowing that any subject they take on will result in a unique and ambitious series. Their intelligent, wry and visually stunning approach to storytelling has a way of engaging an audience and taking them on an unforgettable journey.”

The order comes as Benioff and Weiss ready to step back from the mammoth franchise of GoT, which is currently airing its penultimate season. HBO is developing four potential prequel series to replace the fantasy drama, which ranks as the network’s biggest hit of all time.

Production on Confederate will begin following the final season of Game of Thrones, which currently doesn’t have an air date (late 2018 and 2019 are both possible).