‘Game of Thrones’ Creator George R.R. Martin Is Returning to TV With New Sci-Fi Show

‘Wild Cards’ takes place in a dystopian post-WWII world that’s transformed by a mutant virus.

With the announcement of Game of Thrones‘ imminent final (and probably monumental) season, it appears creator George R.R. Martin already has his next big TV project underway.

Wild Cards, a shared author book series set in a dystopian, post-World War II world in which a virus outbreak either killed you, mutated you, or granted you superpowers, has been picked up for adaptation by Universal Cable Productions. 

Here’s some details from Martin himself:

“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,” Martin wrote on his LiveJournal. “Of those infected, 90 percent died horribly, drawing the black queen, 9 percent were twisted and deformed into jokers, while a lucky 1 percent became blessed with extraordinary and unpredictable powers and became aces. The world was never the same.”

Martin also suggested his new show could rival the comic book worlds of Marvel and DC:

“Wild Cards is a series of books, graphic novels, games… 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,” he writes. “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.”

And if you thought GOT was tough to follow, just wait until Wild Cards hits the airwaves. Since the first book dropped back in 1987, there’s been a whopping 22 novel-like follow-ups that certainly trump the soon-to-be seven A Song of Ice and Fire installments.