As Game of Thrones viewers look to a return to normal life after the end of the fantasy show in 2018, creator George RR Martin has announced that his 22-book sci-fi superhero series Wild Cards is coming to television.
In a post on his livejournal site, the author said that development will begin immediately and the plan is to have several interlocking seasons.
First published in 1986, Wild Cards is set in an alternate post-WWII America where an alien virus has killed 90 percent of the population, leaving nine per cent deformed with the remaining one per cent receiving extraordinary powers. Martin is the editor of Wild Cards, with 30 authors - known as the Wild Cards Trust - writing the various adventures.
"Wild Cards is a series of books, graphic novels, games... but most of all it is a universe, as large and diverse and exciting as the comic book universes of Marvel and DC (though somewhat grittier, and considerably more realistic and more consistent), with an enormous cast of characters both major and minor," wrote Martin.
However, Martin himself will not be working on the Universal Cable Productions (UCP) show as he has an exclusive development deal with HBO, the makers of Game of Thrones, and is currently writing the next GoT book, The Winds of Winter.
The new series will be brought to the screen by Martin's assistant editor and "right-hand man on Wild Cards since its inception", Melinda Snodgrass, and film producer Gregory Noveck.
"They know and love the Wild Cards universe almost as well as I do, and I think they will do a terrific job," said Martin.
"There are thousands of stories to be told in the world of the Wild Cards, and Gregory and Melinda and UCP hope to be able to tell many of them."
"Of course, Hollywood is Hollywood, and nothing is ever certain in development," Martin concluded in his post, "but I think, I hope, I cross my fingers that the Wild Cards will be coming to your home screens in the next year or two."
The seventh season of Game of Thrones will premiere in summer 2017 with seven episodes instead of the usual ten. The eighth and final season is expected to follow in 2018.
