A number of stages around the world will soon transport audiences into the mystical world of Westeros.
George R R Martin's popular Game of Thrones franchise is set to be adapted into a play, with productions planned for New York's Broadway, London's West End and Australia.
The performance will bring some of the novels' and TV series' well-known characters to the stage, though no casting decisions have yet been announced.
Author Martin is working with award-winning playwright Duncan Macmillan and director Dominic Cooke to create the theatrical production, with the first show expected to launch in 2023.
The play will take place during "a pivotal moment in the history of the series", Martin revealed on Tuesday, and will be set more than a decade before the events in his novels.
"The seeds of war are often planted in times of peace. Few in Westeros knew the carnage to come when highborn and smallfolk alike gathered at Harrenhal to watch the finest knights of the realm compete in a great tourney, during the Year of the False Spring," the statement added.
"It is a tourney oft referred during HBO's Game of Thrones and in my novels, A Song of Ice and Fire. And now at last, we can tell the whole story ... on the stage."
In Game of Thrones lore, a number of the franchise's beloved characters were at the jousting event, so theatregoers can expect to see the likes of Ned Stark, Jaime Lannister, Robert Baratheon, Rhaegar Targaryen and Prince Oberyn Martell in the production.
Martin said work on the project began before the pandemic.
"Our dream is to bring Westeros to Broadway, to the West End, to Australia ... and eventually, to a stage near you," he added.
The play follows the final instalment of the HBO TV series in 2019, after eight seasons.
A number of Game of Thrones-related projects have been in the works since then, including House of the Dragon, a prequel series slated to come to HBO in 2022. Martin is also collaborating on projects related to his other books, including Sandkings for Netflix.
It's been nearly 10 years since the saga's most recent volume, A Dance with Dragons, was published.
- Additional reporting by AFP
