People aren't sold on the Game of Thrones showrunners' new series at HBO

Called Confederate, the drama will portray an alt-history where the southern states won the US civil war against the Unionists, giving way to a country where slavery remains legal.The show, due to begin production after the final season of Game of Thrones, will depict events leading up to a third conflict between the two sides.

And Confederate will follow a broad, dare we say, Game of Thrones-esque cast. We’ll see a range of characters across both sides of the ‘Mason-Dixon Demilitarized Zone’: freedom fighters, slave hunters, politicians, abolitionists, journalists, the executives of a slave-holding conglomerate, and the families caught in the crossfire.

“We have discussed Confederate for years, originally as a concept for a feature film,” said Benioff and Weiss in a statement released by HBO. “But our experience on Thrones has convinced us that no one provides a bigger, better storytelling canvas than HBO. There won’t be dragons or White Walkers in this series, but we are creating a world, and we couldn’t imagine better partners in world-building than [co-writers and co-executive producers] Nichelle and Malcolm [Spellman], who have impressed us for a long time with their wit, their imagination and their Scrabble-playing skills.”

“We are thrilled to be able to continue our relationship with Dan and David, knowing that any subject they take on will result in a unique and ambitious series,” said Casey Bloys, the president of programming at the network.

Given the subject matter, it isn't surprising that the commission has raised some eyebrows on the internet.

Although this alt-history premise shares many similarities to Amazon’s The Man in The High Castle – a drama where the Axis Powers rule America after the second world war – Confederate poses it’s own unique questions: if the southern states won the civil war, would the United States exist in some of the same form today? If so, would the rest of the world condemn its slavery? And how would that US handle international events such as the two world wars?

Hopefully Weiss and Benioff will provide some answers in a few years' time.