HBO CEO Richard Plepler discusses life after Game of Thrones and more

Game of Thrones, is the show that made HBO the king of modern television. Sad as it is for us, Game of Thrones ending is a huge deal for HBO’s business as well, which means the corporation has been thinking about its time after the show ends. Fortunately, HBO seems to be knowing what exactly to do.

Game of Thrones prequels have already been planned, and we’re sure HBO has big plans for other successful shows like Westworld and Silicon Valley. In a recent interview, HBO CEO Richard Plepler talked about the future of HBO, and said he’s not afraid of an HBO without Game of Thrones. Read on!

Plepler recently sat down withBloomberg Businessweek to talk about this. He says he is not worried because HBO is always working on bringing the next big thing to life. Speaking of where HBO will head after Game of Thrones, which is quite a common question, Plepler said :

“I don’t hate the question at all because what I said earlier has the virtue of truth, which is, the line at our door is huge. Whether it’s five prequel ideas from different artists on Thrones. Whether it’s Succession, Jesse Armstrong’s fantastic show about the media business. Or the next season of True Detective, the next season of Big Little Lies, whether it’s Lovecraft Country, Misha Green’s extraordinary script, which is a kind of horror genre film set in the 1950s, or Watchmen, Damon Lindelof’s new idea loosely based on the movie but with Damon’s extraordinary take.”

“I’m not concerned about it at all, because the enormity of talent that wants to work at HBO is larger today than ever. So the thing that’s so exciting, if you’re in our chairs, is that you see that line forming. That’s what gives us the confidence to know that the next great show and the next great idea is waiting out there.

Our job is to make sure we pick right and choose right and work with the right people, but that’s actually a high-class problem because of the talent that we have who are excited about being part of the network.”

When Plepler was named as co-president of programming at HBO back in 2007, one of their biggest shows, Sex and the City, had ended, while the other big hit, The Sopranos, was nearing its end. He was in the tough position of swerving the corporation into a positive direction, and he did :

“The job of my colleagues and myself was to refocus on that insurgent voice, to trust the writers who were coming in with new ideas. I remember saying over and over again in 2007, ‘There’ll never be another Sopranos. What there’ll be is the next terrific show. And let’s just go back to our essence, which was trusting the voice of great artists and auteurs who have a vision for what they want that show to be.’ ”

“And in came Alan Ball with True Blood, and Lena Dunham with Girls, and Armando Iannucci with Veep, and Mike Judge and Alec Berg with Silicon Valley. And these two guys, of course, who had never done television before, David Benioff and Dan Weiss, who had this idea to adapt George R.R. Martin’s books.”

He also commented on the sexual harassment revelations which have become prominent in Hollywood now :

“If there’s a silver lining in any of this, it’s that it will be a demarcation point for zero tolerance for willful ignorance or turning a blind eye to questionable activities. That’s a good thing, because I think there was probably a lot of willful ignorance going on in different environments because a lot of people had commented on the behavior of some of the people who you named for a long time, and people just didn’t look too closely.”

“That ended with all the revelations about Harvey Weinstein. I’m proud to say that under my tenure, my predecessor Bill Nelson’s tenure, it’s been zero tolerance, nothing but zero tolerance.”

What do you think about this interview? Talk to us in the comments, down below!

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