George R.R. Martin names the “working title” for the Game of Thrones prequel

If there’s one thing we know even less about than the final season of Game of Thrones, it’s HBO’s upcoming Game of Thrones prequel series.  We know that it will be set during the Age of Heroes, a time thousands of years before the events of Thrones when the Seven Kingdoms were seven kingdoms in truth, each ruled by warring clans. Beyond that, we’ve got nothing, not even a title.

Although we may now be a little more knowledgeable on that front. While speaking with press at the Primetime Emmys earlier this week, A Song of Ice and Fire author revealed the “working title” for the show. Watch below.

"[SPOILERS] George confirms the title of the first prequel show. from gameofthrones"

“We are developing five prequel shows,” Martin said. “I’m not allowed to say too much about them or HBO will pull out all my fingernails, but one of the shows — working title The Long Night — has been greenlit to pilot. Jane Goldman is the showrunner…They’re working on that one right now. I don’t know when they’ll actually start shooting, but that’s going forward. And meanwhile we have four others in various stages of development.”

The Long Night has been rumored to be the title of the show for a while, although Martin has previously said he expects HBO to try to work the words “game of thrones” in there. We hope he’s wrong. The Long Night is the name given to the first war between the White Walkers and the living people of Westeros. If that’s what the new show is mainly concerned with, there’s no need to tie it down with Game of Thrones branding. People will pick up that the two shows are related, and a new title will help the series stand apart from its predecessor.

It’s also interesting that Martin says HBO is still developing five prequels. We knew the network started out with five, but assumed it had shelved at least one or two after committing to make a pilot for The Long Night. There’s circumstantial evidence for that, too. Game of Thrones scribe Bryan Cogman, the guy behind episodes like “Kissed by Fire” and “The Laws of Gods and Men,” was originally developing one of the prequels, but recently signed a deal to make content for Amazon. He can’t do both, can he? Has HBO replaced him, is there another prequel idea we don’t know about, does Martin not have all of his facts straight, or what?

For better or worse, mysteries abound. The scuttlebutt is that the Long Night pilot will probably shoot sometime in February of next year. Until then, we’ll have to bide our time and drink deep of the unknown.

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