George RR Martin signs massive 5-year deal with HBO

George RR Martin is founding a new content kingdom at HBO. The Game of Thrones author just signed a massive deal to develop more programming for the network and its streaming service, HBO Max.

The 72-year-old, whose book series "A Song of Ice and Fire" became the record-breaking TV phenomenon "Game of Thrones", is already working on the prequel series "House of the Dragon" set 300 years earlier, which is expected to air next year.

Sources say Martin's contract spans five years and is worth mid-eight figures. The news comes on the heels of a surge of Game of Thrones prequels being put into development. 

The network has five projects based on Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire fantasy world in the development stage and one (House of the Dragon) that has been greenlit to series.

According to the Hollywood Reporter, the deal worth "mid-eight figures" dollars could include the saga of warrior queen Nymeria who reigned a millennium before "Thrones" takes place, provisionally entitled "10,000 Ships".

Outside the "Thrones" universe, WarnerMedia's statement confirmed Martin will executive produce two other HBO projects - "Who Fears Death" and "Roadmarks", both adaptations of fantasy novels from other authors.
With Martin also involved in the Netflix film adaptation of his early short story "Sandkings", the flurry of small-screen projects has raised concern among fans still impatiently waiting for the conclusion of his "A Song of Ice and Fire" series.
Martin is also currently writing his ASOIAF novels, with his long-awaited sixth book in the saga, The Winds of Winter.

Martin first struck a deal to license his A Song of Ice and Fire novels to HBO in 2007, a journey that would lead to HBO's highest-rated and most award-winning series of all time and Martin becoming one of the most recognisable authors in the world. 

It has been nearly a decade since the fifth instalment of the seven-book series was published.