For all its early excellence, the latter seasons of Game of Thrones left a lot to be desired. Even before that dismal 2019 series finale, the HBO fantasy was losing some of its juice. The story began to unravel in its sixth season, when the series caught up to the events of George R.R. Martin’s novels and was obliged to continue the story its own way (albeit with some guidance from the author). That improvisation saw a handful of arcs end in less-than-satisfactory fashion, and few were more disappointing than Season 6’s Braavos plot.
Across two seasons, audiences followed aspiring warrior Arya Stark on her quest to become the ultimate assassin. Her journey took her across the Narrow Sea to the land of Braavos, and even saw her join the Faceless Men, a weird cult of assassins. Arya was taught to surrender her identity and personal vendettas to become “no one.” Naturally, she struggled against that brief at every turn, and after a deadly stand-off with a rival, Arya realized she didn’t want to be “no one” after all. She returned to Westeros without looking back... and without any repercussions from the Faceless Men, who were never heard from again.
The lazy resolution took a lot of fans by surprise; it felt like Game of Thrones failed to truly develop the Faceless Men, then gave up. In Martin’s books, the organization plays a much larger role, not just in Arya’s growth, but within Braavos itself. Game of Thrones never really dove into the scope of their influence, nor did it seem that interested in the details of the cult. It was a major missed opportunity, and Martin recently revealed a scrapped plan to fix it.
In the years since Game of Thrones premiered, Martin has been hard at work on The Winds of Winter, the penultimate novel in his Song of Ice and Fire series. But he’s also heavily involved with the development of shows set in the Thronesverse, like House of the Dragon.
Though the Targaryen-focused prequel series has been a success, other planned projects haven’t even gotten off the ground. From a sequel series starring Jon Snow to a prequel about the Dornish Princess Nymeria, HBO has scrapped more Game of Thrones spin-offs than it’s greenlit. In a recent blog post, Martin added one casualty to the list, revealing that a Braavos-centered spin-off was once in the works at HBO.
“They shelved that one a couple of years back, alas, but that does not mean I won’t go back to it... After Winds of Winter is done, of course,” Martin wrote.
It’s a nice thought, but it’s hard to hold out hope for another Thrones-centric book with Winds of Winter still in limbo. Martin’s been working on that novel for the past decade, and he’s been pretty honest about the cause of its many delays. “Sometimes the writing goes well and sometimes it doesn’t,” he explained in a 2016 blog post. The pressure to complete the novel before Game of Thrones caught up to its source material — as he’d pledged to do — didn’t help, either. “As the suspicion grew that I would not make it after all, a gloom set in, and I found myself struggling even more,” Martin said.
There is still hope for Martin to complete A Song of Ice and Fire — he’s supposedly finished about 75% of Winds of Winter — but there’s no telling if he’ll ever have time to revive a Braavos spin-off or transform it into a novel. Still, Winds of Winter will actually pick up just before the events of Game of Thrones Season 6, and it could take Arya’s journey through Braavos in a different direction. That means Martin can still fix the series’ botched Braavos arc, even if he never gets around to a story focused entirely on the region and the Faceless Men. All fans really have to do is wait and hope that his infamous novel actually sees the light of day.
