Skip to main content

Game of Thrones gets animated in Lil Thrones parody

George R.R. Martin Presents "Lil Thrones" - CONAN on TBS
The fifth season of Game of Thrones kicked off this week, and series creator George R.R. Martin had a little fun while promoting the return of the hit show, which is based on his “A Song of Ice and Fire” novels, during a segment on a recent episode of Conan. The segment features Martin introducing a new animated, Saturday morning cartoon-style series based on Game of Thrones and titled Lil Thrones.

“I’m pleased to announce a brand new cartoon series for kids based on the world of Westeros,” deadpans Martin before offering a “sneak peek” of the faux series.

The brief segment features crudely illustrated versions of many of the key characters in Game of Thrones, including Joffrey Baratheon (Jack Gleeson), Tyrion Lannister (Peter Dinklage), Cersei Lannister  (Lena Headey), Daenerys Targaryen (Emilia Clarke), and various others that will be familiar to fans of the HBO series. Of course, part of the joke involves revealing some major plot points — particularly characters’ deaths or in some cases, maiming — so if you’re not caught up with Game of Thrones, you might want to hold off on watching Lil Thrones.

The preview of the cartoon, which draws heavily from the Muppet Babies animated series, concludes with all of the characters announcing in musical unison, “We’re all screwed.”

While the cartoon itself is fictional, anyone watching Game of Thrones will likely attest to the closing sentiment being all too true for many of the characters in the series. Notorious for killing off major characters in brutal fashion, the series has been one of the most popular cable television programs in recent years, regularly breaking records for HBO.

The current season of Game of Thrones premiered over the weekend on April 12, and the series will continue to air every Sunday at 9:00 pm ET on HBO.

Editors' Recommendations

Rick Marshall
A veteran journalist with more than two decades of experience covering local and national news, arts and entertainment, and…
The Hunger Games prequel The Ballad Of Songbirds and Snakes gets first trailer
A boy looks into the eyes of a girl alongside a fence in The Hunger Games prequel.

Head back to Panem and discover the origins of a young Coriolanus Snow (Billy the Kid's Tom Blyth), decades before he would rule as the oppressive president of the nation, in the first trailer for the prequel film The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes. The film is based on the novel of the same name by The Hunger Games author Suzanne Collins.

Set 64 years before the events of The Hunger Games, the film follows an 18-year-old Snow, who is looking for a purpose as he tries to restore relevancy to his disgraced family in the Capitol. Ahead of the 10th Annual Hunger Games, Snow is assigned to mentor the female tribute from District 12, Lucy Gray Baird (West Side Story's Rachel Zegler). As Hunger Games co-creator Casca Highbottom (Game of Thrones' Peter Dinklage) tells Snow in the trailer, a mentor's job is to "turn these children into spectacles, not survivors." During the reaping ceremony, Baird boldly sings and curtsies to the crowd, reminding fans of another defiant District 12 tribute, Katniss Everdeen, who would unite the nation years later.

Read more
Star Wars’ distant past has potential for Game of Thrones-like drama
A collage of characters in "Star Wars: The Old Republic" promo art.

While pondering yet another big IP Disney+ series can seem like an exhaustive thought considering its current breakneck output, Andor's critical success for both the streaming platform and the Star Wars franchise as a whole gives a taste of the potential that the Old Republic could provide to a TV series. That's in addition to the benefit of being heavily separated from the Skywalker Saga legacy.

No series needs to be darker and more serious to be inherently better, but the level of tension and drama found in Cassian Andor's gritty origin story should be a seamless fit somewhere within the literal thousands of years worth of history in Star Wars' distant past. In the Old Republic, there's no shortage of Jedi, Sith, intergalactic factions, political intrigue, and more that could give Disney+ and Lucasfilm a major and long-running Game of Thrones-level drama to keep audiences reeled in season in and season out.
The Old Republic provides an embarrassment of riches

Read more
How House of the Dragon saved Game of Thrones’ tarnished legacy
Alicent and Rhaenyra clutch each other in House of the Dragon.

May 19, 2019, is a date branded on the pop culture lexicon. The finale to Game of Thrones, the television phenomenon that single-handedly revitalized the fantasy genre and redefined what "event television" meant, aired to the collective disappointment of millions of fans. The show's decline in quality had begun in season 7, with some questionable choices happening as far back as season 5, but the train wreck that was season 8 was beyond words. Consistency went out the window in favor of spectacle, resulting in a rushed season that reduced the world's greatest TV show into a sad shadow of its former self.

The controversial finale put a seemingly permanent stain on Game of Thrones. In the years leading up to its conclusion, HBO expressed interest in creating a franchise based around George R. R. Martin's World of Ice and Fire. However, the episode's terrible reception put the network's plan in doubt, with many wondering if the Game of Thrones brand was in a healthy enough place to support a franchise. Things got worse when the first spinoff, starring Naomi Watts, got unceremoniously axed -- even after shooting a $30 million pilot -- spelling doom for the would-be franchise. Alas, not all was lost; GoT still had an ace up its sleeve, and it was called House Targaryen.
Mother of Dragons

Read more