HBO Bosses on Rising Costs, Brutal Negotiations and 'Game of Thrones' Future

Details remain scarce about the hotly anticipated spinoffs (HBO prefers the term “successor shows”) that will follow Game of Thrones when the epic fantasy series ends its run next year.

But HBO executives have made one thing clear: they aren't playing it safe.

Speaking at a panel titled "The Best of HBO" at the INTV conference in Israel on Tuesday, Francesca Orsi, HBO senior vp of drama, said the network has budgeted the Game of Thrones spinoffs near the level of the original series, and above the budget GoT had in its first few seasons. “$50 million (per season) would never fly for what we are trying to do. We are going big,” Orsi said.

Given the phenomenal success of GoT, Orsi said “it feels like corporate malfeasance to not continue it,” noting the network is planning “three, four, five spinoffs” of the original series.

Orsi also promised that the final season of GoT will not disappoint. A table read of the last few episodes with the show's cast, she said, “was a really powerful moment in our lives and our careers. None of the cast had received the scripts prior, and one by one they started to fall down to their deaths. By the end, the last few words on the final script, the tears just started falling down. Then there was applause that lasted 15 minutes.”