Tower of the Hand

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.

Poll: Is Winter on the horizon in 2021? If seasons last for years in the world of Westeros, then we've been waiting for The Winds of Winter for what must have been a decade-long autumn. Indeed, A Dance with Dragons was released ten years ago. It surely would be wonderful to celebrate ADWD's anniversary with a followup book, yes? Our readers were mostly optimistic about 2020 (ha! in so many ways), but as of the most recent status update, we still have no hint as to how imminent The Winds of Winter is. Maybe, just maybe, 2021 will finally be the year that we see winter on the horizon. What are your hopes and expectations?

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.

Starring roles named in House of the Dragon. While everyone may be talking about Disney's major Star Wars and Marvel reveals, HBO wants to remind everyone that it's in the franchise game, too, by announcing today who will be headlining its first Game of Thrones spinoff, House of the Dragon. Joining the previously announced Paddy Considine as King Viserys Targaryen are Olivia Cooke as Alicent Hightower, Emma D'Arcy as Rhaenyra Targaryen, and Matt Smith as Daemon Targaryen.