Game Of Thrones: 4 Spin-Offs HBO Should Make (& 3 They Shouldn't)

1. Game Of Thrones: Anthologies

Going down another rather different path, there's nothing to say that the spin-off has to be one big overarching series. Over the past few years we've seen a lot of successful anthologies, from Fargo to the seemingly hundreds Ryan Murphy has on the go at any one time. We've also seen just how great they can be, telling stories that standalone but can also reference each other if appropriate, and straddle a line between genre and prestige TV.

Martin said there were 8 million stories to be told - this is a great way of telling a number of them. The sheer amount of material makes this an immediately appealing proposition, because it would allow HBO to cover so many different periods and settings from throughout the history of Westeros and Essos.

One season, for example, could cover Aegon's Conquest. It's a story that is arguably worthy of its own series anyway, but you could really put a tight focus on it here - he manages to bring Westeros under his rule in just a couple of years, and it's a timeframe that could fit into one run of 10-13 episodes, and pepper a few major dragon set-pieces throughout.

Similarly, The Dance of the Dragons, the first Targ Civil War, could work this way. Again, it lasts a couple of years, and could be a blistering self-contained run of episodes that are action-packed and full of Iron Throne drama, with some huge set-pieces and fascinating characters.

There's really no end of stories they could cover with this, condensing some bigger ones down, expanding some smaller ones, or just honing in on one part of a bigger whole that we already know: it could be a way of working in elements of Robert's Rebellion, for example, the Andal Invasion, or the Tragedy of Summerhall and birth of Rhaegar Targaryen. Each series could have a different settings and tones, bringing us fresh elements from this vast universe.