George R.R. Martin superhero series Wild Cards is coming to TV and it's even bigger than Game of Thrones

While Game of Thrones may be nearing its conclusion, George R.R. Martin fans will still be able to appreciate his work on TV. The author took to his Live Journal to announce that Universal Cable Productions (UCP) has acquired the rights to bring his Wild Cards novels to the small screen. Check out the concept of the series in Martin's own words below...

"The shared world of the Wild Cards diverged from our own on September 15, 1946 when an alien virus was released in the skies over Manhattan, and spread across an unsuspecting Earth. Of those infected, 90% died horribly, drawing the black queen, 9% were twisted and deformed into jokers, while a lucky 1% became blessed with extraordinary and unpredictable powers and became aces. The world was never the same".

"Wild Cards is a series of books, graphic novels, games", continued Martin, "but most of all it is a universe, as large and diverse and exciting as the comic book universes of Marvel and DC (though somewhat grittier, and considerably more realistic and more consistent), with an enormous cast of characters both major and minor. There are thousands of stories to be told in the world of the Wild Cards, and Gregory and Melinda and UPC hope to be able to tell many of them".

Between Marvel's numerous Netflix offerings - not to mention Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D and the upcoming Legion - and DC's quartet of Supergirl, Arrow, The Flash, and Legends of Tomorrow, superhero TV is thriving right now. It will be interesting to see where Wild Cards ends up in that already populated landscape.

The fact that Wild Cards is a Martin product will surely draw some curiosity from those who aren't already familiar, but it should be noted that the Game of Thrones author won't have any direct involvement with the show due to his exclusive deals with HBO. Martin hopes it will be "a year or two" before the show debuts, however, so it looks like there's still a while to wait. In the meantime...

Season 7 of Game of Thrones will debut in summer 2017.

Amon is a contributing editor and columnist for Empire magazine, but is also a Film and TV writer for GamesRadar+, Total Film, and others. He has also written for NME, Composer Mag, and more, along with being a film critic for TalkSport. He is also the co-host of the Fade to Black Podcast, and a video mashup creator. Can also do a pretty good Bane impersonation.