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Willa Rowe is a contributing writer at Polygon, covering games and entertainment. She is a New York-based journalist and critic whose work has been featured in Kotaku, Digital Trends, the A.V. Club, GamesRadar+, and more. She also co-hosts the Girl Mode podcast.
GRRM's prequel to the HBO series will continue
Game of Thrones: The Mad King sets official return in 2027
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The Mad King lives. The Royal Shakespeare Company's sold-out stage production of Game of Thrones: The Mad King closed in Stratford-upon-Avon in September, but it's not the end for the spinoff of George R.R. Martin's prequel to Game of Thrones.
The production team has revealed that The Mad King will return to the stage in London in 2027.
Game of Thrones creator George R.R. Martin made the announcement on his blog in September. "I had a splendid time in Stratford-upon-Avon for the premiere of Duncan Macmillan and Dominic Cooke’s epic new stage production of Game of Thrones: The Mad King," Martin wrote, "and furthermore, I’m thrilled to announce that the production will be moving on to London to share the experience with a wider audience."
Venue and dates for the London production have not been announced. Casting has also not been confirmed, but let's hope as many of the original cast members as possible will reprise their roles. The Mad King is directed by Dominic Cooke and written by Duncan Macmillan (Every Brilliant Thing).
What is Game of Thrones: The Mad King about?
The stage play acts as a prequel to HBO's Game of Thrones series, itself an adaptation of Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire books. The show is largely focused on the events that led up to Robert's Rebellion, namely the jousting tournament at Harrenhal. The main players in The Mad King are younger versions of familiar faces from the show, including Ned Stark and Robert Baratheon, as well as long-dead legends such as Lyanna Stark, Rhaegar Targaryen, and the Mad King himself. The heart of the show is the romantic plot between Rhaegar and Lyanna, which fans know eventually leads to the birth of Jon Snow.
In the hands of the Royal Shakespeare Company, Martin's world of political machinations gains a new dimension. This is enhanced by incredible puppetry depicting the jousting. In our review, we wrote that, "It’s hard to point to anything particularly uninspiring about The Mad King that stems from its own flaws... Try as The Mad King might, it’s far more enjoyable if you divorce the stage play adaptation from HBO’s Game of Thrones entirely. Judging it on its own merits transforms The Mad King into a masterpiece of pure Shakespearean art, rather than a prequel to a once-great-now-middling fantasy TV series." Fans of the show, or good Shakespearean theater, will want to look out for details on the London production when they are announced.