All The Books, Shows, & Movies Keeping The 'GoT' Universe Alive After The Series Ends

Eight years and eight seasons later, the end has finally arrived. After the series finale on Sunday night, Game of Thrones won't return for Season 9, and fans are understandably very sad to have to say goodbye to the show. But even though the series is over, that doesn't mean the story won't continue. There are still a lot of Game of Thrones-adjacent projects to look forward to.

To start, HBO is airing a special on May 26 that documents the creation of the final season, including inside looks at table reads, actor reactions to the episodes, and more. Beyond that, HBO is planning at least one GoT spinoff (with two others in development). According to Harper's Bazaar, it will be a prequel that takes place in Westeros (or whatever it was called back then) thousands of years before the current series. Production is slated to start this year for a 2020 premiere.

There are also more books coming from George R. R. Martin, the author of the book series Game of Thrones is based upon. However, the wait for those may be a bit long. According to The Independent, actor Ian McElhinney, who played Ser Barristan Selmy on the TV show, got fans' hopes up at a convention when he claimed that Martin had already finished the next two books and was just waiting for the HBO series to end before releasing them.However, Martin shot down this idea on his blog, writing:

"The books are not done. HBO did not ask me to delay them ... I assure you, HBO and [the showrunners] would both have been thrilled and delighted if THE WINDS OF WINTER had been delivered and published four or five years ago… and NO ONE would have been more delighted than me."

Martin added that he has not even begun work on A Dream of Spring yet, and that he won't start on that one until The Winds of Winter is finished, which it is not.

In the meantime, many Game of Thrones actors have other projects in the works. Here are just a few to look out for:

Kit Harington (Jon Snow)

The actor recently lent his voice to How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World, which is out now.

Emilia Clarke (Daenerys Targaryen)

You can catch the Mother of Dragons in the upcoming 2019 movies Last Christmas and Above Suspicion.

Peter Dinklage (Tyrion Lannister)

Dinklage has quite a few projects in the works. He voices characters in The Angry Birds Movie 2, which comes out this year, and The Croods 2, which comes out in 2020. He's also slated to appear in The Dwarf and The Thicket, although neither of those have release dates yet.

Nikolaj Coster-Waldau (Jaime Lannister)

If you miss Jaime after that unceremonious death, catch the actor in Domino and Suicide Tourist, both due out later this year. He'll also be in the upcoming movies Notat and The Silencing, but those don't have release dates yet.

Lena Headey (Cersei Lannister)

You can see the brilliant actor behind Cersei in the 2019 movie The Flood, the 2020 movie Gunpowder Milkshake, or the film Crooks, which doesn't yet have a release date.

Sophie Turner (Sansa Stark)

Most notably, Turner is starring in the 2019 X-Men movie Dark Phoenix. She's also slated for two movies without premiere dates as of yet: Heavy and Broken Soldier.

Maisie Williams (Arya Stark)

Williams is starring in another X-Men franchise movie called The New Mutants. It comes out in 2020. After that, she's in The Owners, which doesn't yet have a release date.

Game of Thrones may be the end of an era, but it's not the end for these actors or for the Westeros universe as a whole. Mourn the loss of the TV show, and then get excited about what's to come.