If Game of Thrones Season 9 happens, one benefit is that it could put some theories to rest for good. Game of Thrones‘ ending was, quite famously, very well received and beloved by absolutely everyone (right?), but could there ever be more? It might seem implausible, but it certainly isn’t impossible. HBO is very much committed to turning this into a true franchise, with multiple spinoffs: House of the Dragon Season 3 and A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms Season 1 are both coming in 2026, and more are in development. But there’s still nothing on the level that the parent show reached.
We live in an era where just about everything can and often does come back in some way. In just the past decade, Star Wars’ original trilogy stars returned, classics like Twin Peaks and Frasier were rebooted, Sarah Michelle Gellar is back for a Buffy the Vampire revival, Robert Downey Jr. left the MCU as Iron Man and is returning as Doctor Doom, and The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum will likely include several actors from Peter Jackson’s trilogy. So Game of Thrones Season 9 isn’t unthinkable.
There wasn’t obvious setup for it but, given Kit Harington tried to make a Jon Snow sequel, it could well be explored. Jon beyond the Wall, Arya finding what’s West of Westeros, and Sansa Stark as Queen in the North could all be continued if the show were to come back, but it should also kill off two popular fan theories.
Bran Stark becoming Westeros’ new king was one of the most controversial decisions made across all eight seasons of Game of Thrones. Who would end up the ruler at the end had long been a point of discussion and speculation. Would it be Jon Snow? Daenerys Targaryen? Hot Pie?! Although the Iron Throne was destroyed anyway, few had predicted that Bran would be the one to take charge of the continent.
Perhaps to help combat this, one popular theory is that Bran plotted his way to becoming king in Game of Thrones. With him as the Three-Eyed Raven at this point, the idea is that all the steps to this stage were his own machinations, as he operated in the shadows and even across time in order to get to this point. Giving Arya the Valyrian steel dagger? The Mad King wanting to burn them all? The Night’s King’s creation? All could’ve been Bran/the Three-Eyed Raven, on the path to taking control for his own nefarious ends.
While I think there’ll be more to the Three-Eyed Crow in the books, and wish the TV show had explained more of Bran’s powers and how they changed him, I don’t see the idea working in full. It’s not that it isn’t somewhat compelling, but even though Bran says he’s not really Bran anymore, it still too fundamentally changes the character we watched from Season 1. It’d quite possibly be too complex to pull off in a satisfying way that also doesn’t then create a lot of inconsistencies, and undermine the point of Bran becoming king in the first place.
Game of Thrones could’ve handled it better (and not having Bran missing from an entire season would’ve helped), but him being king does make sense with George R.R. Martin’s vision and love of what he describes as “cripples, bastards, and broken things.” Bran, the boy who dreamed of being a knight before that was so cruelly robbed from him, then becoming king, is very much a Martin sort of twist, and there’s a lot of Arthurian type foreshadowing around the character to fit with it.
But it’s also in that he does not want for power (the author typically doesn’t reward those who do, at least not long-term), and can see and learn from the past to lead Westeros into a hopefully brighter future. Those are good ideas that could be explored further if a ninth season were to happen, and don’t require convoluted or even malevolent machinations to make work.
Possibly the only part of Game of Thrones Season 8 more controversial than King Bran was “Mad Queen” Daenerys, as she descended into a fury and burned down King’s Landing. Again, the issue is arguably more execution than idea, but Dany’s subsequent death at the hands of Jon Snow was hard for some fans to take. And with Drogon flying away with her dead body, believed to be heading to Volantis in Essos, it led to one major theory: that Daenerys would be resurrected.
Key to this are the Red Priestesses, such as Kinvara, who was a known supporter of Daenerys. Given we’ve seen the resurrection powers of the Lord of Light before, then it’s easy to see why there’d be theories of Dany coming back to life and then coming back to Westeros for revenge.
In truth, it’s more likely that Drogon took his “mother” to Essos for a Targaryen burial – or in other words, to burn her body. And that would be better for Game of Thrones Season 9 than Khaleesi returning, because her story is very much finished, regardless of whether the conclusion to it was popular or not. She became a liberator, a queen, and a conqueror; she took what she believed was hers with fire and blood; she loved and lost. There’s no point bringing her back because there’s nowhere for her story to go, and all it’d do is diminish what impact her death does have. Resurrection already risked bing overplayed, so there doesn’t need to be another one.
If Game of Thrones Season 9 were to happen, Daenerys should be part of it, just not quite so literally. The series would need to explore her legacy, and the impact of her actions and her death on those closest to her. How does the betrayal weight upon Tyrion Lannister? How much is Jon haunted by killing not only his queen, but a woman he loved? How does King’s Landing rebuild? How is she remembered? There’s plenty in there that could be interesting to see, and it does not require her being alive for it to work. Quite the opposite, it’s stronger if she stays dead.
Game of Thrones is available to stream on HBO Max. A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms Season 1 begins on January 18th, 2026. House of the Dragon Season 3 is expected to debut in summer 2026.
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