We’ve got a whole lotta burning questions about HBO’s current original programming slate as well as its jam-packed development pipeline. And, as luck would have it, the premium cabler’s top exec — Chief Content Officer Casey Bloys — sat down with TVLine late Tuesday to field every single one of them.
TVLINE | The True Blood project that’s in development: Is it a full reboot with a new cast? A sequel? A prequel?
There’s been multiple versions of it. I don’t know that we’ve landed on the one. I don’t want to give you the impression that it’s anything close to [getting a green light].
TVLINE | Could Season 4 be Succession‘s last season?
That’ll be [series creator] Jesse [Armstrong]’s call, obviously. He’s with the writers now, talking about Season 4. I imagine at some point he will let us know where he lands on whether this is the last or if there’s more. Generally speaking, we leave it to the showrunner/creators to come to us to let us know when it’s the time to end the story. So we’ll see.
TVLINE | Have you had any indication from him that it might be?
[There are] no indications that this one will for sure be the final season. I think he wanted to go into the writers’ room with all options open.
TVLINE | Demimonde was announced four years ago. I know J.J. Abrams has said Season 1 is written. What can you tell me about where that project is at?
Yes. It’s a really big and very exciting show. It takes a lot of planning, because it’s so big. So we’re in that stage. The scripts are written, and they’re trying to get, I guess I would say, a plan of attack on how to shoot [it] and things like that. No details yet on when it would start shooting or anything like that, but they’re in the process of trying to figure that out.
TVLINE | This is another of those “How long until we can see it?!” questions, but The Last of Us: the “end of 2022” timeframe has been swirling around…
We’ve never announced ’22. I will say it’s going to air not in ’22. They’re still shooting in Calgary. I’m not sure how far [along] they are, I don’t know if I would say three-quarters done, but they’re still shooting. So it won’t be in ’22.
TVLINE | What are your general impressions, based on what you’ve seen?
Oh, I’m excited. Obviously, we’ve worked with Craig [Mazin] on Chernobyl. He’s immensely talented. From what I’ve seen so far, I’m excited with what they’re doing.
TVLINE | House of the Dragon: What’s the feel of the show, compared to the original Game of Thrones?
Ryan [Condal] and Miguel [Sapochnik] did a great job. Miguel, you know, directed the original. They’ve done a very, very difficult thing, I think, in that it feels wholly its own. It is focused on one family, which I think is interesting. It’s a bit more focused on the Targaryens, a high drama family for sure. So it feels very much its own but also within the Game of Thrones world.
TVLINE | There was that period of time when it felt like every other week there was a new Game of Thrones spinoff in the works…
… There were speculations about that.
TVLINE | Yes, speculations. If there were new series on the horizon, would we be anywhere near news on anything in that realm?
I’m not motivated here by any sort of, “We need three Game of Thrones spinoffs.” To state the obvious, we’ve got one Game of Thrones show greenlit, and that’s House of the Dragon. And we’re really excited about that. There are other ones in development. We will greenlight something when we feel like something is exciting and well done and tells a story that we care about. It’s like any development. So there’s no guarantee that anything’s going to go… [We’re] not trying to fill a schedule with a new prequel every year or anything like that. It’s just based on what stories we’re excited about telling.
TVLINE | Let’s say all of these speculative shows fall apart. Might there be a universe in which House of the Dragon and the original series are the only two Game of Thrones shows ever, and that’s it?
Yeah. By the way, this is not specific to Game of Thrones. Typically speaking, we don’t put something on just to try to fill a slot. We’re trying to fulfill what we think is the HBO brand promise, which is quality shows that feel interesting [and] different. But we’re not doing it just to fill a slot. And that wouldn’t change for Game of Thrones, either. That said, there’s development that we’re certainly excited by.
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