Robert's Rebellion will not be featured in Game of Thrones spin-offs, reveals The Winds of Winter author George R R Martin

Game of Thrones author George R R Martin has taken to his blog to reveal some important updates regarding the Game of Thrones spin-offs that are in the works.

Earlier this month, HBO revealed that it was developing four ideas for spin-offs, and the network had already commissioned four writers to work on the project. Martin on May 14 revealed that one more writer has been roped in to develop a fifth idea. However, he refused to name the writer.

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"HBO announced the names of the first four, and will no doubt announce the fifth as well, once his deal has closed," wrote Martin. He also revealed that the spin-offs will be prequels.

The author of the A Song of Ice and Fire series of books, which is the source material for the television adaptation of Game of Thrones, did not reveal what the focus of these prequels will be, but noted that it will not be based on Dunk & Egg or Robert's Rebellion.

We're not doing Dunk & Egg. Eventually, sure, I'd love that, and so would many of you. But I've only written and published three novellas to date, and there are at least seven or eight or ten more I want to write. We all know how slow I am, and how fast a television show can move. I don't want to repeat what happened with GAME OF THRONES itself, where the show gets ahead of the books. When the day comes that I've finished telling all my tales of Dunk & Egg, then we'll do a tv show about them… but that day is still a long ways off.

We're not doing Robert's Rebellion either. I know thousands of you want that, I know there's a petition… but by the time I finish writing A SONG OF ICE & FIRE, you will know every important thing that happened in Robert's Rebellion. There would be no surprises or revelations left in such a show, just the acting out of conflicts whose resolutions you already know. That's not a story I want to tell just now; it would feel too much like a twice-told tale.

Game of Thrones will return to television in July with Season 7, the penultimate season of the show. The final season will air in 2018 and it will consist of only six episodes.