Jon Snow and Daenerys Targaryen standing in a snowy field in Game of Thrones season 8
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Ambrose Tardive
Published 22 minutes ago
Ambrose Tardive is an editor on ScreenRant's Comics team. Over the past two years, he has developed into the internet's foremost authority on The Far Side. Outside of his work for ScreenRant, Ambrose works as an Adjunct English Instructor.
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Warning! Limited spoilers for East of West ahead!
East of West has everything it needs to be the next Game of Thrones. HBO's fantasy epic ended with more of a whimper than a bang in 2019, and no TV series has quite managed to claim the show's position as the next great cultural landmark. Jonathan Hickman's East of West, could be it.
East of West was written by Hickman, with art by Nick Dragotta. The series ran for 45 issues from 2013 through 2019. In other words, it was published contemporaneously with Game of Thrones' TV run.
east of west's death
Now, as Hollywood searches for the next GoT, it's time East of West got its overdue adaptation off the ground.
"East Of West" Could Become A Mega Hit On The Level Of "Game Of Thrones"
East Of West #1-45, Written By Jonathan Hickman; Art By Nick Dragotta
Around the same time that Game of Thrones delivered its disappointing final season, East of West wrapped up its own ambitious fantasy saga with a much more satisfying conclusion. An Amazon Prime adaptation was reportedly in development at the time, but plans fell through. Creators Jonathan Hickman and Nick Dragotta have since gone on to powerhouse tenures at Marvel and DC.
It's unclear why exactly an East of West TV series didn't get off the ground at Amazon, though it's possible to speculate. 2019 was the year The Boys launched, while the massively expensive Rings of Power went into production around the same time. Amazon invested in these shows instead, but neither has fully become a GoT level cultural phenomenon.
The Boys, a comic adaptation itself, has come closer than the Lord of the Rings prequel. It has a chance to deliver a more satisfying final season than Game of Thrones, but the hype won't be anywhere near the same level. And when it's all said and done, there will be a vacuum in Amazon's programming schedule. Enter East of West.
"East Of West" Is A Delirious, Can't-Miss Mash-Up Of Genres That Would Make Perfect TV
Alternate History Meets Apocalypse Fiction Meets Family Drama
East of West #1, fragments of the prophecy spoken by different characters
The plot of East of West is, to use a technical term, pretty bonkers. It is an alternate history, but also an apocalypse story. It is set in a world where the American Civil War never ended, which is also dealing with the manifestation of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. Things go especially haywire when Death falls in love with a mortal woman.
Author Jonathan Hickman doesn't pull any punches with the story. It's a complex political thriller as much as it is a love story, while also offering a meditation on free will and destiny. It offers commentary on real world issues while offering a completely immersive fictional world of its own. The plot starts in media res, but manages to move propulsively forward while filling in backstory.
Marvel fans who have read Jonathan Hickman's transformative House of X/Powers of X series will recognize many of the tricks and techniques which made that series innovative in East of West. Hickman essentially used his own series as a testing ground for the style that made him one of Marvel's top creators right now.
"East Of West" Finished Its Run In 2019, And Has Been Waiting To Be Adapted Since
The Complete Story Could Run Multiple Seasons On TV
East of West remixes American history and the Book of Revelations, subverting recognizable iconography at the same time that it introduces some of its own. It's a story with twists and turns that are evocative of Game of Thrones, and if there's one thing that should appeal to studios and showrunners looking for the next GoT, it's that it is a complete story.
The final seasons of Game of Thrones were hampered by the source material's incompleteness. There are still two forthcoming volumes of George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series. East of West's story of Death's quest to find his lost family, which takes him across a neo-western dystopian United States, has a beginning, middle, and end.
It's a story that could be done in 2-3 season, an enticing mid-term commitment of time and resources for Amazon, HBO, or wherever East of West might find a home. It's also a perfect opportunity for Hollywood to steal Jonathan Hickman, which would be a huge loss for comics, but a major gain for wider audiences.
Jonathan Hickman Deserves To Be The Showrunner If "East Of West" Goes To TV
Hickman And Artist Nick Dragotta's Vision Shouldn't Be Compromised
If East of West is turned into a TV series, its author should be given the opportunity to be the showrunner, if Jonathan Hickman is interested in making the jump to television. He should at least be the first in line to adapt his singular storytelling vision from the page to the screen.
Of course, Nick Dragotta should also be heavily involved in maintaining the series' visual aesthetic. The art of East of West is stunning, and is as important to making it a great comic series as the writing. East of West has action, horror, comedy, metaphysics, and more to share with audiences, making it a no-brainer as a TV show.
Above all else, East of West is ambitious. It is the kind of series that takes big swings, and does what it does at a very high level, in the vein of A Song of Fire and Ice. As such, it is the perfect Game of Thrones substitute waiting in the wings for a production company to make it happen.
Game of Thrones
Created by
George R.R. Martin
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
TV Show(s)
Game Of Thrones, House of the Dragon, A Knight Of The Seven Kingdoms
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