George R. R Martin's Failed 1992 Multiverse Series Deserves A Reboot

Decades before HBO transformed George R. R. Martin into a household name, and years before he published his first "Game of Thrones" novel, the author dabbled more heavily in science fiction. While it might be difficult to imagine GRRM writing about anything other than Westeros, his earlier works, like "Dying of the Light" and "Tuf Voyaging" feature everything from interstellar travel to galactic war to planet-wide societal decay.

Martin even tried his hand at the multiverse. In 1992, he created a TV pilot for ABC called "Doorways," which saw a doctor travel from universe to universe protecting a young woman from a metahuman with blood-crazed tunnel vision. Unfortunately, it did far less well than Marvel's multiverse story about a doctor traveling from universe to universe to ... oh, you get the point. Despite initial reactions from ABC, which were noted as largely positive, "Doorways" never made it beyond that singular, unaired pilot.

Time heals all wounds, though — or at least, allows you to revisit them and apply band-aids. In 2011, the same year that HBO released Season 1 of "Game of Thrones," Martin breathed new life into "Doorways" as a four-issue comic book series, which adapted the same story from the pilot but with a totally new visual style. And while it was great to see his story get a second chance at life, it's not the life that "Doorways" was meant to have. 

Martin's multiverse drama was meant to be the next "Quantum Leap," only better. Since we collectively exist in a time period when Hollywood insists on rebooting everything — including the aforementioned "Quantum Leap," sans Dr. Sam Beckett — why not invest that energy into projects that never got their fair shake the first time around? Why not take Martin's "Doorways" and turn it into a brand-new sci-fi series?

Hang on. Isn't there already an overabundance of multiverse media in the modern zeitgeist? Isn't that stone good and well turned? It's certainly true that Marvel is in the process of beating that particular horse to death with such brutal determination that it's quite possible the "m" word will become a trauma trigger for moviegoers in the near future, but the wave hasn't subsided yet, and both "Spider-Man: No Way Home" and "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness" inspired audiences to fork over the kind of cash that could rejuvenate a small nation. Meanwhile, "Everything Everywhere All at Once" swept the 95th Academy Awards. That movie redefined careers. Michelle Yeoh's a Transformer now! And the newest animated "Spider-Verse" movie is breaking barriers and doing gangbusters at the box office. 

It well may be that the multiverse will someday lose its luster, but today is not that day. And "Doorways" is multiversal media in its purest form. 

The pilot wastes no time confirming that things are about to get weird by way of a narrator rattling off potential universe variants during a delightfully campy intro sequence, and George R. R. Martin was so invested in flexing the concept that he killed off the dad from "That 70's Show" twice in the pilot's two-hour runtime. So, let's get wacky. Let's get weird. Let's rebirth "Doorways," now that Martin and the multiverse are both bigger than ever.

Technically speaking, HBO's adaptation of "Game of Thrones" ended years ago ... and disastrously. Fans were not pleased with how the showrunners handled the ending. Despite this, "House of Dragon" pulled incredible numbers for HBO Max and Season 2 is on its way. It's delayed because of the Writer's Strike, sure, but it's still coming. And HBO's Matt Smith vehicle isn't the only "Game of Thrones" content on the studio's docket, either – HBO is developing a sequel series for Kit Harrington's Jon Snow, along with an exhausting list of other projects, such as "A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms: The Hedge Knight" and the (far easier to say aloud) "The Sea Snake." Not to use two horse-themed colloquialisms in the same article, but HBO is happy to hitch its cart to George R. R. Martin's intellectual property because the studio understands that ol' GRRM's star is still rising.

And there are a lot of reasons for that. Unlike other famous fantasy authors we could mention, Martin isn't torching the ground he walks on just to watch it burn. He's even been spotted on the picket line in support of the aforementioned Writer's Strike. Say what you will about his writing, the guy's doing well in the public eye. Well, except for the minor detail that he still hasn't finished writing the last "Game of Thrones" novels. But that's a different story for a different time. For right now, it seems very believable that he'd be up for revisiting a past baby that never properly got born. 

Since audiences are still happily engaged with both multiverse media and George R. R. Martin's body of work, it feels as though giving him the chance to reboot "Doorways" would be a surefire hit. And, barring critical success, a reboot would guarantee the project finally had a legitimate chance in front of a real viewership because — barring the whole thing about, "Hey, maybe you should finish that book series you started almost 30 years ago, eh?" — Martin has shown remarkable skill at branching out from his previous works, as seen when he tackled video games last year. Granted, writing the lore of "Elden Ring" for FromSoftware was less of a shift for GRRM than, say, jumping back into science fiction, but the important thing to note here is that the novelist willingly stepped away from Westeros to try something else. 

Now, unless that was his final respite before diving headfirst into "The Winds of Winter" and "A Dream of Spring," it seems as though Martin is looking for a little variety. So, let's let him. He's earned the goodwill to deliver a campy romp through the multiverse that jumps from one world to the next without much thought for looking back. 

And that's what "Doorways" is, really — an over-the-top justification for Martin to return to short stories, like the ones he used to exclusively write. And doesn't that sound nice? Letting a writer create the kind of stories they so clearly love? It might not be considered prestige television, but that's okay. And hey, Kurtwood Smith's still kicking around. Maybe he would be open to dying a third time?