If you’re a fan of fantasy writer George R.R. Martin (or as we like to call him, Jersey Tolkien), you probably already know that Game of Thrones will not return to HBO until 2019.
Now here’s the good news: a new Martin pilot will be hitting small screens this fall.
SYFY just dropped a teaser trailer for Nightflyers, the most expensive original series in the network’s history. The science-fiction horror is a revamped, reimagined adaptation of the modestly successful 1987 film of the same name, and both are based on Martin’s 1980 novella.
For Thrones “book readers” who get all worked up when Martin takes a break from writing to hit the bathroom or watch his beloved Jets (more or less the same thing), this news is probably a bit alarming. But as Neil Gaiman once wrote, the man’s not your bitch. He’s free to involve himself in whatever project he likes.
And thank goodness for that, because Nightflyers looks epic. In the teaser, Martin describes the show as “A haunted house story on a starship.” It’s about a space crew that slowly gets picked off one by one in deep space, and so far we’re seeing blood, jump cuts, athleisure space unis, good old-fashioned light flickering, and more blood.
Martin will earn an executive producer credit on the series, though HBO restricts him from writing for anyone else. Nightflyers is also being co-produced by Netflix, a fact HBO will probably be none too jazzed about. But with Thrones (the show) taking its sweet time on a return, Martin fans can at least take solace in knowing that aliens and command centers are coming to replace their beloved white walkers and castles come fall.
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