After “Game of Thrones” wraps up, showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss will continue onto their next project for HBO — an alternate history series called “Confederate,” the network announced Wednesday.
Benioff and Weiss will executive produce the series, which exists in a fictional timeline where the South succeeded in seceding from the Union. In this version of the United States — or what’s become of it — slavery has remained legal and has continued into the modern era.
The story takes place during what’s called the Third American Civil War and follows a group of characters on both sides of the Mason-Dixon line, now a demilitarized zone. The groups the characters belong to are vast and include freedom fighters, slave hunters, politicians, abolitionists, journalists and others. One specific group are the executives of a slave-holding conglomerate and the families they control.
Production is expected to begin after the final season of “Game of Thrones.”
Benioff and Weiss said they’d been playing around with the idea for years, but originally thought of it as a feature film.
“But our experience on ‘Thrones’ has convinced us that no one provides a bigger, better storytelling canvas than HBO,” the two said in a statement. “There won’t be dragons or White Walkers in this series, but we are creating a world.”
“As the brilliant ‘Game of Thrones’ winds down to its final season, we are thrilled to be able to continue our relationship with Dan and David, knowing that any subject they take on will result in a unique and ambitious series,” said president of HBO Programming Casey Bloys. “Their intelligent, wry and visually stunning approach to storytelling has a way of engaging an audience and taking them on an unforgettable journey.”
Joining Benioff and Weiss as writers on the series are Nichelle Tramble Spellman (“Justified,” “The Good Wife”) and Malcolm Spellman (“Empire”).
“We couldn’t imagine better partners in world-building than Nichelle and Malcolm, who have impressed us for a long time with their wit, their imagination and their Scrabble-playing skills,” the showrunner duo continued.
Carolyn Strauss and Bernadette Caufield, both from “Game of Thrones,” are also joining the series as executive producers.