HBO has greenlit a pilot for a Game of Thrones prequel series from writer Jane Goldman (Kingsman: The Secret Service, X-Men: First Class, Kick-Ass, Stardust) and A Song of Ice and Fire author George R.R. Martin. If the pilot gets ordered to series, Goldman would serve as showrunner.
Entertainment Weekly broke the story, and has a synopsis of the as-yet-untitled show:
"Taking place thousands of years before the events of Game of Thrones, the series chronicles the world’s descent from the golden Age of Heroes into its darkest hour. And only one thing is for sure: from the horrifying secrets of Westeros’s 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."
In Martin’s novels, the Age of Heroes begins after the First Men and the Children of the Forest sign a pact that ended a war between them, and it ends when the Andals invade Westeros. Sometime in the middle, the White Walkers appeared for the First Time, precipitating the Long Night. That, surely, is what the synopsis means when it talks about the world’s “darkest hour.”
Many of the great Houses in Westeros can trace their origins back to Age of Heroes. For example, this is when Bran the Builder constructs Winterfell and the Wall, and when Lann the Clever tricks the Casterlys into giving up Casterly Rock, claiming it for the Lannisters. Other notable heroes include Garth Greenhand of House Gardner, the Grey King of the Iron Islands, Durran who raised Storm’s end, and the blind knight Symeon Star-Eyes.
HBO has said it wants to wait at least a year between the end of Game of Thrones and the debut of a prequel, so don’t expect this series to show up until at least 2020. Also note that HBO ordered five prequel ideas developed, and may yet order more. For now, this is exciting news! Is this the setting you were hoping for? What kind of stories are you looking forward to seeing?
Next: Season 8 filming: The Dothraki saddle up
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