HBO RENEWS GAME OF THRONES FOR SECOND SEASON
LOS ANGELES, April 19, 2011 – Following strong critical and viewer response to the series’ April 17 debut, HBO has renewed GAME OF THRONES for a second season, it was announced today by Michael Lombardo, president, HBO Programming.
“We are delighted by the way David Benioff and D.B. Weiss have brought George R.R. Martin’s amazing book series to the screen, and thrilled by the support of the media and our viewers,” said Lombardo. “This is the continuation of an exciting creative partnership.”
Based on the bestselling fantasy book series “A Song of Ice and Fire,” by George R.R. Martin, GAME OF THRONES follows kings and queens, knights and renegades, liars and noblemen as they vie for power in a land where summers span decades and winters can last a lifetime.
Among the early critical raves, TV Guide has called the show “a crowning triumph” and “brilliant,” while the Los Angeles Times termed GAME OF THRONES “a great and thundering series,” as well as “wild and bewitching.” The Hollywood Reporter praised the “excellent storytelling, superb acting and stunning visual effects,” and the New York Post observed that the “art directing, acting and incredible sets are as breathtaking as the massive scope of the series.”
The gross audience for the premiere night of GAME OF THRONES on the main HBO channel was 4.2 million viewers.
The season one cast includes (in alphabetical order): Mark Addy, Alfie Allen, Sean Bean, Emilia Clarke, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Peter Dinklage, Michelle Fairley, Aidan Gillen, Jack Gleeson, Iain Glen, Kit Harington, Lena Headey, Isaac Hempstead-Wright, Harry Lloyd, Richard Madden, Rory McCann, Jason Momoa, Sophie Turner and Maisie Williams.
Season one credits: GAME OF THRONES is executive produced by David Benioff and D.B. Weiss; co-executive producers, Carolyn Strauss, Guymon Casady, Vince Gerardis, Ralph Vicinanza and George R.R. Martin; producers, Mark Huffam and Frank Doelger; directors of photography, Marco Pontecorvo, Alik Sakharov and Matt Jensen; production designer, Gemma Jackson; costume designer, Michele Clapton.
That from HBO.
From me again: I'm thrilled.
Ten more episodes! A CLASH OF KINGS.
Looks like I'll be writing the Battle of the Blackwater. David & Dan give me the easy stuff.
P.S. A late correction. Actually, I don't KNOW how many more episodes. Could be ten. Could be more. Could even be fewer, I suppose, though I don't really think so. Myself, I'd love to see twelve episodes this second time around, since CLASH is a hundred pages longer than GAME. But that's a call for HBO and Dan and David, and I am sure they will let us know once it's made.
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Comments
It's not going to be HBO's biggest hit ever. Let's not be crazy. It's going to be a successful show. Is it going to be bigger than The Sopranos or The Wire? Probably not.
If it does better than True Blood we can be happy. If it does better than Rome but only lasts 2 seasons (like Rome) we might be really unhappy. Like Rome, the show is quite expensive.
I'm more disappointed that Ginia Bellafante decided to double-down on her "girls don't like fantasy" line in her blog at the NY Times:
http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/0
And fwiw, to all the literary snobs showing up in support of her: You characters are vapid and annoying and focus on such trivial crap. How can you really invest your life in 200 (or less) pages of this drivel?! ^.^ At least good speculative fiction involves real and changing characters who focus on world events.
(And yeah, we need to keep interest in the series. Hound friends!)
True Blood is by far HBO's best show so to do better than that would be amazing.
The really sad thing is that the 2nd most popular HBO show, if we're talking about ratings, probably is Sex and the City. Bellafante isn't going to be alone in her sexist, dismissive attitude of fantasy fans, male and female.
People might really want to consider writing polite and expressive letters to the editor of the NY Times.
Since then the show has found a much wider audience on DVD and in foreign markets, but it took its time for people to find it. It's the best show ever, IMO, and I think HBO knew what they had and why it would eventually find an audience in the long term and sometimes there is a benefit to that even if they aren't seeing huge numbers up front.
The good will alone that HBO has earned for sticking with that show has meant a lot for the network and probably has earned them a lot of loyal viewers.
I don't think it'll do better than TB. True Blood is HBO's biggest hit. All i want is the show to be renewed, and renewed, and renewed.. well, you got the point :D
I am hoping that polt and character wise we are way closer to the Sopranos. Stumbling block is the fantasy theme which some people will just not check out. Everyone is cool with Mobsters.
So, I am thinking that GoT will end up around the True Blood level and maybe a tad lower. But GoT will sell more DVDs and long term have more seasons.
Of course just guesses. My only fear is that it is just to dark for people. It does get really cutthroat and only being able to watch an hour then wait another week to find out what happens will be interesting to see how people react to. With the books you could skip ahead a couple chapters to see if everyone was ok then go back to where you were.
Congrats though! I will watch each episode!