It is finally happening, or at least starting to. HBO announced today that it has greenlit a pilot for a Game of Thrones prequel. The network also released the first plot details, and it sounds ambitious.
There were five or more prequel pitches being worked on, and HBO selected the one from Kingsman: Secret Service and Kick-Ass writer Jane Goldman. George R.R. Martin is involved, too, serving as an executive producer.
According to Entertainment Weekly, the untitled show is set "thousands" of years before the events of HBO's Game of Thrones. "The series chronicles the world's descent from the golden Age of Heroes into its darkest hour," reads a line from the announcement. "And only one thing is for sure: From the horrifying secrets of Westeros' history to the true origin of the white walkers, the mysteries of the East, to the Starks of legend… it's not the story we think we know."
EW reminds us that the Age of Heroes started 10,000 years before the events of the current show, according to the fiction. Some of the characters who could show up, based on this timeline, include House Stark founder Bran the Builder and House Lannister founder Lann the Clever. Notably, Bran the Builder is known for building The Wall, so that could be explored.
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Bear in mind that HBO has only ordered a pilot, not a full series. It is possible some of the other pitches could get pilot orders as well. In fact, EW's sources said HBO is still considering the other four ideas. What we do know is that any new Game of Thrones show would not air until after Game of Thrones Season 8 in 2019, so don't expect the new show to premiere until 2020 at the very soonest.
Game of Thrones creators and showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss are not involved in the new show. As reported previously, they are working on Star Wars movies and an HBO show set in post-Civil War America where slavery remained legal. However, Benioff and Weiss are not actively working on the project, according to The Washington Post.
