Tower of the Hand

Super Bowl LV Open Thread. It's Super Bowl Weeknd! This year, the Kansas City Chiefs take on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Who has the advantage? The Chiefs are the favorites and the defending champs, but the Bucs have the home field edge and Tom Brady. And yes, the Weeknd will be headlining the halftime festivities.

This is an open thread to discuss all things Super Bowl related. Let us know what you're doing this year for the big game, who you think is going to win, and which commercials left a mark, for better or worse.

Hundreds and hundreds of pages. In a new post reflecting on 2020, George R. R. Martin offers some thoughts on the pandemic, politics, and a year filled with personal losses. But GRRM points out some good things about 2020, and in particular highlights progress he made on The Winds of Winter:

Hundreds and hundreds of pages done, with hundreds more to go. It's not the announcement we were all hoping to hear, but it remains far better than the alternative.

Potential animated spinoff in early development. Once again, we've got news about another potential Game of Thrones spinoff, but this time it's in animated form. According to the Hollywood Reporter:

So that makes two shows reportedly in early development, plus House of the Dragon, which is considerably further along; it goes into production this spring and should be ready to air in 2022. The article goes on to say that plans to expand the Game of Thrones universe existed "long before" Disney announced its massive television slate. It's true that HBO had as many as five spinoffs under consideration during Game of Thrones' final season, but I don't think it's a coincidence that HBO is just now mentioning the projects that are in early development (not to mention rumors about a new Harry Potter show, too). Disney flexed and HBO had to respond.

What could this animated show be about? Unlike the proposed Dunk and Egg spinoff, we have very little to go on. Perhaps this is a way to repurpose some of the ideas from the abandoned Long Night show, with animation being a more cost-effective way to tell that story. Perhaps we could get an animated retelling of Aegon the Conqueror, since House of the Dragon seems to be focusing on a later period of Targaryen history. What are your thoughts on a potential animated show? Do you think there are even more Game of Thrones spinoffs in the works?

Update: Via Tweet, HBO Max confirms not only the Dunk and Egg and animated shows, but a previously unreported Robert's Rebellion prequel is also in development:

WandaVision Open Thread. By request (albeit a little late), here's an open thread for WandaVision, the latest Disney+ show and the first on the streamer to be directly connected to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Elizabeth Olsen and Paul Bettany star as the title characters, Wanda Maximoff and Vision, reprising their roles from the MCU.

But what exactly is the show about? That's the mystery. Feel free to use this thread to speculate wildly and to discuss all episodes of this unusual show. New episodes drop on Friday.

Potential Dunk and Egg show in early development. Yesterday saw a bit of surprising news on the spinoff front: HBO is reportedly developing a new show based on the Dunk and Egg tales. As you all know, George R. R. Martin has written three short novels about a hedge knight and his young squire as they travel about Westeros, some ninety years before the events of A Song of Ice and Fire. If you didn't know that already, well, then you should read them. They're good and now conveniently packaged as one book: A Tale of the Seven Kingdoms.

Variety broke the news of the potential prequel, which is clearly in as "early development" as a TV show could possibly get:

This move seems like it's all about the streaming wars. House of the Dragon remains on track to debut in 2022, but that's no longer enough to compete with all the Star Wars and Marvel shows set to drop in the near future. HBO is betting that Dunk and Egg can add quality and quantity to its HBO Max lineup (we'll discuss whether or not it can on another day), and I would bet that this is just the first move into fully making Game of Thrones a franchise.

After Dark, Talent Shows. Tower of the Hand "After Dark" invites you to mingle with other members and chat about all things off topic. Here's a two-part ice breaker for you all: 1) Name a talent that you had to show off (or an act that you had to perform) when growing up. 2) Name a new skill that you've developed in the past year.