On Tuesday, Naomi Watts officially became the first cast member to join the cast of the Game of Thrones prequel series. The show is set to take place during the Age of Heroes, thousands of years before the current timeline. It was in this time that the White Walkers came for the living, riding their pale spiders big as hounds, bringing with them a darkness that lasted a generation. This event was known was the Long Night.
Although the prequel doesn’t have a title yet, A Song of Ice and Fire author George R.R. Martin has taken to calling it “The Long Night.” When the news about Watts came down, Martin took to his Not a Blog to celebrate, and basically confirmed that this is at least the official working title.
"I could not be more excited. Welcome to Westeros, Naomi. Jane Goldman scripted the LONG NIGHT pilot and will be running the show. She and her team are busy in London right now, neck deep in casting, and I expect some more names will be announced soon."
Notice how Martin capitalizes all the letters in “LONG NIGHT.” That’s something he always does when talking about the title of something, as when he confirmed that The Winds of Winter would not be released in 2018. “You’re going to have to keep waiting for THE WINDS OF WINTER,” he wrote. When asked if Winds should be broken up into two novels, the author wrote this:
"Some of my publishers have suggested breaking up WINDS as we did with FEAST and DANCE. I am resisting that notion."
He did the same thing when tweeting about Fire & Blood, his upcoming volume of Targaryen history:
FIRE & BLOOD, the history of the Targaryens, will be releasing in hardcover on November 20! Read more about it in my blog post: https://t.co/Y6kdsfEds9 #FireandBlood pic.twitter.com/URFJRzGA9r
— George RR Martin (@GRRMspeaking) April 25, 2018
Also this is him talking about Winds and a new Wild Cards book back in 2016: “This time we’ve signed with Random House Audio, the same good folks who have been bringing you the great audiobook versions of A SONG OF ICE AND FIRE, as well as ROGUES, DANGEROUS WOMEN, and my other anthologies.” You get the idea.
While there’s no way to be sure the Game of Thrones prequel will be called The Long Night, the evidence is starting to mount. Barring an official announcement, that’s how we’ll be referring to it around here.
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