Hey, if HBO doesn't want Bryan Cogman, Amazon's Lord Of The Rings will happily take him
Back in April, writer Bryan Cogman revealed that the Game Of Thrones spin-off idea he had pitched to HBO had been rejected, freeing him up to take an overall deal with Amazon instead. Cogman was the writer behind what we can all confidently say was the best episode of Game Of Thrones’ final season, so it seemed like a bit of a shame that his future with the brand got cut off so quickly, but now it looks like his Amazon deal is going to be much more closely aligned with his Game Of Thrones experience.
As reported by Variety, Cogman has signed on to “consult” on Amazon’s Lord Of The Rings show, which apparently means he will “work alongside” existing writers JD Payne and Patrick McKay. We still don’t know much about Amazon’s Lord Of The Rings, other than that it will take place before the main stories we all know, but bringing Cogman on board is at least an extremely clear indication that Amazon wants this to be Game Of Thrones. Jeff Bezos has essentially stopped just short of hiring David Benioff and D.B. Weiss as showrunners, but if he did that they would probably just try to shoehorn in their big ideas for a bad take on the Civil War.
Also, bringing a Game Of Thrones guy on board with a Lord Of The Rings show is a lot like when J.J. Abrams made a Star Trek movie that was a lot like a Star Wars movie, and then Disney hired him to actually make a Star Wars movie. Fun!