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George R.R. Martin offers fresh update on 'Game of Thrones' spinoffs, Peacock's 'Wild Cards' series

The cost-cutting at Warner Bros. Discovery has officially reached Westeros.

By Josh Weiss
George R.R. Martin

Bad news, fantasy fans: the extreme cost-cutting measures at Warner Bros. Discovery has officially reached the shores of Westeros. Posting on his trusty "Not a Blog" blog this week, George R.R. Martin revealed that "a couple" of Game of Thrones spinoff projects "have been shelved" as a direct result of "all the changes at HBO Max." The upside is that none of them are completely dead. "I would not agree that they are dead," wrote the author. "You can take something off the shelf as easily as you can put it on the shelf."

Not even high-profile titles like Batgirl and Westworld were safe from the accountants' chopping block as WB Discovery CEO David Zaslav vowed to slash several billion in corporate spending. To that end, a number of TV show have already been removed from the HBO Max platform, so the company can avoid paying out a steady stream of royalties to their creators.

As of this writing, the second season of House of the Dragon (a prequel to the flagship series) is the only Thrones endeavor in active production. While Martin — who is still deep into the writing process for The Winds of Winter — didn't go into specifics about which titles have been paused, he did promise that a number are still moving forward in their development stages, though none of them have received green-lights just yet. "We are hoping…maybe soon," he continued.

RELATED: George R.R. Martin's alt-history sci-fi series 'Wild Cards' shuffles from Hulu to Peacock

We've learned of several breakout shows seemingly destined for HBO Max over the last several years, including The Tales of Dunk and Egg, a mysterious animated outing, and a Jon Snow sequel featuring the return of Kit Harington.

Martin also provided a brief update on Peacock's Wild Cards adaptation, which, rest assured, is still chugging along and will "largely" draw from 2011's Fort Freak collection, which hints at a genre-bending noir atmosphere. The title "Fort Freak" refers to a part of Manhattan where cops and criminals are known to operate — a place "where every other desk sergeant, detective, and patrol officer is more than human," reads the official synopsis provided on Amazon.

Peacock scooped up the small screen adaptation last March after Hulu decided to pass on it. Martin will executive produce the series alongside Thrones alum Vince Gerardis and his fellow Wild Cards editor, Melinda M. Snodgrass.

Looking for more sci-fi and fantasy television? Resident Alien, Wolf Like Me, Chucky, The Girl in the Woods, Battlestar Galactica, Dark Shadows, Heroes, Sliders, Brave New World, Project Blue Book, and more are all streaming on Peacock.