George R R Martin is open to a Game of Thrones spin-off

"OH GOD, GEORGE," cried the internet. "Stop talking about other projects and FINISH THE BLOODY BOOKS."

This is probably the (clean) response many of you will have to the news that George R R "I'll publish when it's ready" Martin has some thoughts toward what HBO might get up to, once they finish their adaptation of his A song of Ice and Fire series. 

Speaking to Entertainment Weekly about the forthcoming sixth season of Game of Thrones, he was asked if he could see other opportunities for returning to the world of Westeros once the seventh and final series is broadcast. 

"There is certainly no lack of material," Martin told EW. "Every episode of The Naked City – one of the television shows I watched as a kid – ended with a voice-over: ‘There are eight million stories in the naked city. This has been one of them.’ There are eight million stories in Westeros as well… and even more in Essos and the lands beyond. A whole world full of stories, waiting to be told… if indeed HBO is interested. The most natural follow-up would be an adaptation of my Dunk & Egg stories."

Martin's short stories, following Ser Duncan the Tall and his squire Egg, have been collected together into A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms - a book that proceeds the events of the war for the iron throne in the Song of Ice and Fire.

"Each of the novellas could easily be done as a two-hour stand-alone movie for television," speculated Martin. "That would probably be the ideal way to do them, rather than as an ongoing weekly series. The Hedge Knight and its sequels are lighter [in tone] than A Song of Ice and Fire, more in the realm of action/adventure."

So - if HBO wanted to squeeze a little more entertainment/money out of the mind of Martin, the material is ready and waiting. 

There's just the small matter of polishing off the TV adaptation first. Here's hoping HBO leaves off any such distracting conversations until after Martin has finished the books...