George R.R. Martin loved the USA Network sci-fi show so much he pulled its co-creator Ryan Condal onto his own universe, years before HBO's dragon epic existed.
Colony never got the ending it was building toward. Three seasons, 39 episodes, cancelled by USA Network in 2018, and it just resurfaced on Prime Video. But the real story here isn't the binge value. It's who was watching, and what came out of it.
The premise: aliens called the Hosts occupy Earth, knock out the grid, and drop massive walls that carve up cities and countries. One lands right through Los Angeles, splitting Will Bowman (Josh Holloway) from his son Charlie (Jacob Buster). Will gets pinched trying to cross the LA wall, and the Hosts' human collaborators strong-arm him into hunting down the Resistance, a group his own wife Katie (Sarah Wayne Callies) has secretly joined to feed intel to.
The show kept pulling the floor out from under itself. Season 2's premiere, "Eleven Thirteen," reveals that certain people in power knew the invasion was coming and sold humanity out to stay in charge. Season 3 goes bigger still, revealing the Hosts are themselves at war with a deadlier alien species, and Earth's occupation is really a culling exercise to build a stronger army.
Co-creator and showrunner Carlton Cuse has said Colony was mapped out for five or six seasons, ending in an all-out war between humans and the Hosts. Holloway has talked about what got cut short too, saying his character was headed toward becoming something like a super soldier had Season 4 happened. "I told them, 'You got to show an alien soon,'" he told Esquire. "But we were a little late."
The George R.R. Martin connection
Colony picked up admirers it didn't get to keep an audience for. Stephen King called it "smart, suspenseful, subversive" and "thought-provoking." George R.R. Martin was watching too, and he liked it enough to write about it.
On his blog, Martin recalled meeting Colony's other co-creator, Ryan Condal, when Condal came to New Mexico to shoot a pilot for a fantasy western called The Sixth Gun. "He's a helluva strong writer, and a huge fan of A Song of Ice and Fire, Dunk & Egg, and Westeros in general," Martin wrote. "I've loved working with him, and if the Seven Gods and HBO are kind, I hope to keep on working with him for years to come on this new successor show."
That successor show turned out to be House of the Dragon. Condal has run it into one of HBO's biggest hits, and Season 4, its last, is slated for 2028.
So the alien invasion that never got its finale ended up seeding a dragon war that will. Colony is streaming in full on Prime Video now, cancellation and all.
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