GAME OF THRONES only has two short seasons left before it wraps up its series run, and thus will end one of the great pieces of television of the current generation of shows. It’ll be a sad day when it happens, but at least we can all rest easy knowing that it went out on its own terms. But wipe those tears away, for fans of the GAME OF THRONES author and series executive producer may be happy to learn that the writer isn’t done with showbiz just yet.

While Martin has largely made his name as a novelist, one aspect of his career that can’t be overlooked is his work as editor of various anthologies. Among these anthologies are OLD VENUS, ROGUES DANGEROUS WOMEN, WARRIORS, and of course, WILD CARDS, which is the anthology we’ll be talking about today.

Thanks to a reveal via George R.R. Martin’s own LiveJournal page, we now know that a network is hard at work at adapting this WILD CARDS world:

“Universal Cable Productions (UCP) has acquired the rights to adapt our long-running WILD CARDS series of anthologies and mosaic novels for television. Development will begin immediately on what we hope will be the first of several interlocking series. Melinda M. Snodgrass, my assistant editor and right-hand man on Wild Cards since its inception, the creator of Dr. Tachyon, Double Helix, and Franny Black, and a seasoned television writer/ producer whose credits include STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION (“Measure of a Man”), REASONABLE DOUBTS, THE PROFILER, and STAR COMMAND, is attached as an executive producer on the project, together with Gregory Noveck of RED, Slow Learner, and SyFy Films.”

For those who are unfamiliar with theWILD CARDS is a long-running science fiction superhero anthology series, which is currently comprised of no less than twenty installments, which consist of short stories and full novels set in the same universe. In short, if you were hoping to see Martin continue on with something more akin to GAME OF THRONES will likely have to look elsewhere, but I’d imagine that he’d work to make WILD CARDS just as engaging and character-driven as its high fantasy counterpart.

Here’s what else Martin had to say about the property:

WILD CARDS is a series of books, graphic novels, games… but most of all it is a universe, as large and diverse and exciting as the comic book universes of Marvel and DC (though somewhat grittier, and considerably more realistic and more consistent), with an enormous cast of characters both major and minor. There are thousands of stories to be told in the world of the WILD CARDS, and Gregory and Melinda and UPC hope to be able to tell many of them.

So, let’s break this down a bit so it’s a bit easier to understand. Admittedly, the whole idea of this can be a bit confusing if one doesn’t understand what they’re pitching. The obvious comparison to make here is with Marvel’s Cinematic Universe, but I’d narrow down that comparison a bit, and hold up Marvel’s Netflix universe instead, so as not to bring full feature films into the mix.

From the sound of it, Martin and company are only aiming to have multiple different series (no movies) set in this WILD CARDS world, and they will essentially create a mosaic of said world, not unlike what Marvel has done with Hell’s Kitchen in their Netflix series thus far. Sounds like an interesting concept, and one that’ll be interesting across a network (or even several). With the gravitas Martin brings with his name, it may be a gamble worth taking, but make no mistake, it is a gamble. Perhaps they’ll take the approach of creating a single season of a show, then add on from there, not unlike what Berlanti did with ARROW and THE FLASH and Marvel did with its Netflix shows.

What do you think? Does a series like WILD CARDS interest you? Are you familiar with the anthology series? Let us know in the comments down below!

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SOURCE: George R.R. Martin