Why HBO’s Next Big Move Should Be a Game of Thrones Reboot

With the runaway success of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms and credible rumors of a Netflix buyout looming, a strange but tantalizing question hangs over HBO’s future: should the first order of business for this newly minted streaming superpower be a full reboot of the show that made HBO a modern giant?

It’s a peculiar moment for Warner Bros. As Netflix circles and Paramount reportedly jockeys for position, WB finds itself simultaneously looking backward and forward. The studio’s film division is heading into awards season loaded with prestige—Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another, Ryan Coogler’s Sinners, and Amy Madigan’s buzzed-about performance in Weapons—while much of the cultural conversation remains fixed on what’s happening across the moat, on television.

And that’s where things get interesting.

Netflix head Ted Sarandos has repeatedly emphasized that HBO would remain a distinct brand under any potential acquisition. If that’s the case, HBO may soon be entering its boldest chapter yet—armed with Netflix’s resources and HBO’s creative legacy. The obvious question follows: can lightning strike twice for Game of Thrones?

For years, multiple prequel concepts were floated. One—a Naomi Watts-led series centered on the fall of the Targaryen dynasty in Valyria—made it as far as a pilot before being quietly shelved. The survivor was House of the Dragon, adapted from Martin’s Fire & Blood and chronicling the Targaryen civil war known as the Dance of the Dragons.

When House premiered in 2022, three years after Thrones had been effectively left for dead, expectations were cautious. Instead, it became a ratings juggernaut, reminding audiences why they once loved Westeros: court intrigue, ambition, sex, violence, and moral rot, all set against dynastic spectacle.

But HBO may have truly struck gold with A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms. Set decades after House and a century before Thrones, the series has earned near-universal praise—not least because it does something fans have been begging for since the early seasons of Thrones: it faithfully embraces Martin’s text.

For the first time in years, Westeros feels alive again.

AKOTSK is colorful, witty, dramatic, and unapologetically fantastical. It feels lifted directly from the page, capturing the tone and texture of Martin’s world in a way Game of Thrones gradually abandoned. Where Thrones sanded down the quirks of fantasy in favor of grit and realism, AKOTSK leans into banners, pageantry, ornate armor, humor, prophecy, and myth.

That wasn’t always a mistake. In the early 2010s, “grounded” was the currency of prestige. Christopher Nolan’s Batman films had cemented the idea that the only way to sell a “goofy” genre was to strip it of color and excess. Benioff and Weiss made Thrones accessible to the masses, and for years, it worked.

But the landscape has changed.

Studios are now rewarded for boldness, not restraint. Fantasy audiences are more literate, more demanding, and far less forgiving of shortcuts. AKOTSK’s success—now among HBO’s biggest premieres—proves there is real appetite for a version of Westeros that looks, feels, and behaves like Martin imagined it.

A full reboot of Game of Thrones, crafted with the same fidelity and care as AKOTSK, wouldn’t simply retread old ground. It would be an entirely different show.

As Thrones progressed, it diverged further and further from Martin’s novels—sometimes effectively, sometimes disastrously. Gone were the dreams, prophecies, ghosts, and layered interior lives of its characters. What remained was spectacle without myth, momentum without meaning.

A reboot could restore all of that.

It’s long been my belief that HBO’s strategy—working steadily forward through history with prequels—is deliberate. The endgame may well be a series centered on Robert’s Rebellion, the cataclysmic war that directly precedes Game of Thrones. The fall of the Mad King, Prince Rhaegar and Lyanna Stark, Robert Baratheon’s rise—this is the missing chapter that bridges myth and memory.

From there, the path is obvious.

A Robert’s Rebellion series could seamlessly lead into a book-accurate Game of Thrones reboot—one that embraces Martin’s full vision without the constraints, compromises, or baggage of the original adaptation.

If Netflix wants a crown jewel to justify its acquisition, and HBO wants to prove it has finally earned back audience trust, there may be no better gamble.

We may find out sooner than we think.