New George R.R. Martin GOT Spinoff's A Song Of Ice & Fire Canon Status Clarified By Franchise Author

Image via HBO Published Jul 30, 2026, 1:56 PM EDT Jeff Dodge (he/him), a published author and graduate of Western Washington University, has been a TV news editor for many years and has had the chance to interview multiple reality show stars, including Randy Jackson, Nick Cannon, Heidi Klum, Mel B and John Cena. Fun Fact: he’s been to every single Idol Live! Tour. Sign in to your ScreenRant account The Game of Thrones play The Mad King just premiered in England, and it's now been confirmed whether the story is canon to George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire. Westeros has been explored in books and TV shows, and as of this month, it's taken over the stage in a new Dominic Cooke-directed play that takes place at Harrenhal a decade before the events of A Game of Thrones. Aerys II Targaryen's reign is on thin ice as his inner circle attempts to commit a treasonable act against him. With previews having just begun at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre (after some initial cancellations), The World of Ice and Fire co-author Elio M. Garcia Jr. revealed Game of Thrones: The Mad King's status in the A Song of Ice and Fire canon. In an extensive post on fan website Westeros, he revealed that the play is "not canon as a whole, but some parts of it are, and some parts of it are not." The story that the creative team wanted to tell on stage "trumped attempting to stick to every piece of canon, old or new." Some of the information in The Mad King comes straight from Martin himself, but at the end of the day, the story should be seen as an "imaginative dramatic interpretation" unless the author says something to the contrary in interviews or his own books. "Is it canon? Game of Thrones: The Mad King is not canon as a whole, but some parts of it are, and some parts of it are not. In fact, early reports cite a number of details which are very much expressly non-canonical, showing that the needs of the play and the story the creatives wanted to tell trumped attempting to stick to every piece of canon, old or new. "Some of its foundations come directly from George. Some of its major answers may reflect truths that will eventually appear, perhaps in a different form, in his own work. Around those foundations, however, the playwright, director, actors and other collaborators have built a drama. The details of that drama should be understood as an imaginative dramatic interpretation unless and until George specifically confirms otherwise in things like interviews. Or until the books themselves settle the matter with finality." Garcia Jr. made it clear that he hasn't spoken to Martin or the team behind The Mad King to get insight about the story or its connections to Martin's larger world. He went on to explain what actually is canon, which is A Song of Ice and Fire, the Dunk & Egg novellas and any other Westeros-set book Martin has published, like The World of Ice and Fire and Fire & Blood. Information that Martin mentions in interviews is considered canon unless or until he says otherwise. On the flip side, all of the HBO adaptations—Game of Thrones, House of the Dragon and A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms—are obviously not canon. The Mad King play, Garcia Jr. noted, is technically part of this separate category, even though some of it is canon. The Mad King, despite its extensive run time of four hours, is not a sweeping narrative told over thousands and thousands of pages, like Martin has done with A Song of Ice and Fire. As a result, when it came to telling the story of King Aerys' reign in the lead-up to Robert's Rebellion, playwright Duncan Macmillan had to preserve the "big, key parts, but being able to collapse, reorder, reframe, add or omit details as necessary." So Garcia Jr. considers the play to be an interpretation instead of an adaptation. "This is not the same thing as making the most canonically-exact play possible. It means preserving the big, key parts, but being able to collapse, reorder, reframe, add, or omit details as necessary. So, our expectation is that the play contains answers to some of the major questions surrounding Harrenhal—questions readers have debated for many years—and that at least some of those answers (but not necessarily all!) derive directly from George’s own conception of the history. Those central revelations may therefore tell us something real about the underlying canon." Also, the version that's currently being seen in previews could very well undergo dialogue and scene changes by the time of its official opening on August 8. It's even possible that major changes could be made after this date. After all, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child was originally a two-part play before it was eventually condensed into one part. With The Mad King being four hours long, it's not out of the question that the same situation could happen here. Credit: HBO via MovieStillsDB The Mad King's debut comes as House of the Dragon season 3 is airing on HBO, as creator Ryan Condal continues adapting Martin's companion book Fire & Blood. Meanwhile, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms season 2, which will continue to adapt Dunk & Egg, has been filming throughout this year and is expected to air in 2027. There are multiple ways to experience the world of Game of Thrones right now, including with The Mad King play, which is running until September 5. Its future beyond that date is unclear, but the first preview show got a standing ovation the night of July 28. Game of Thrones $45 $85 Save $40 TV Show(s) Game Of Thrones, House of the Dragon, A Knight Of The Seven Kingdoms First TV Show Game Of Thrones Cast Emilia Clarke, Peter Dinklage, Sophie Turner, Kit Harington, Lena Headey, Maisie Williams, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Iain Glen, John Bradley, Alfie Allen, Conleth Hill, Liam Cunningham, Gwendoline Christie, Aidan Gillen, Isaac Hempstead-Wright, Rory McCann, Nathalie Emmanuel, Jerome Flynn, Rhys Ifans, Matt Smith, Graham McTavish, Fabien Frankel, Steve Toussaint, Eve Best, Emma D'Arcy, Matthew Needham, Olivia Cooke, Milly Alcock, Emily Carey Created by George R.R. Martin Game of Thrones is a multimedia franchise created by George R.R. Martin. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire is the basis for the award-winning HBO series Game of Thrones, which lasted for eight seasons. After the incredibly divisive final season of Game of Thrones, the series was followed up by the prequel series House of the Dragon, which also received critical acclaim.