Winter is coming and so is a new fantasy television show from George R.R. Martin, creator of the uber-successful Game of Thrones. Martin, on his personal blog, revealed in the post “The Wild Cards Are Coming…to Television,” that Universal Cable Productions has acquired the rights to adapt his Wild Cards anthology for TV. Universal Cable is developing the project currently, and Martin will not be working on the project due to his exclusive development deal with HBO.

In the blog post, Martin said, “Hollywood is Hollywood, and nothing is ever certain in development… but I think I hope I cross my fingers that the Wild Cards will be coming to your home screens in the next year or two.”

“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,” Martin continues. 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.”

Wild Cards is a 22-volume anthology that was first published in 1986. Martin summarizes the plot: “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.”

It is these Wild Cards anthologies that will be adapted for television by Universal Cable.

Some of Universal Cable Productions’ programs include Colony, Mr. Robot, Royal Pains, Suits, and Playing House on the USA Network, Girlfriend’s Guide to Divorce on Bravo, and The Royals on E!

Then Martin goes on to name the writers, himself included, who have contributed to Wild Cards over a period of thirty years. These include: Howard Waldrop, Stephen Leigh, Victor Milan, John Jos. Miller, Gail Gerstner Miller, Edward Bryant and Leanne C. Harper, Arthur Byron Cover, and Ty Franck, among others.