Game of Thrones Fans Rejoice! Here’s Everything You Need To Know About The Prequel!

It has been more than 8 years since HBO brought to life the beloved epic fantasy, Game of Thrones which took over the world of entertainment like a tsunami in full force. While it was a long and painful wait for the final season to roll around, it all ended rather unceremoniously.

The episodes of the final season cost an outstanding $15 million per episode to produce, but the long-awaited conclusion was intensely criticized. To say that it was anti-climactic is the understatement of the millennium, more so after the immense build-up of a nearly two-year wait after the bombshell ending of season 7!

Well, there’s good news for all the fans of this incredible show because there is a chance for redemption – the prequel is already being filmed in Northern Ireland! If you haven’t gotten wind of it yet, you’ve likely been living under a rock. According to official reports, the prequel is set to take place roughly five thousand years prior to the Game of Thrones timeline. The era is dubbed the “Age of Heroes” and features many familiar elements of the series we know and love.

This prequel doesn’t actually officially have a title yet, but it seems to be along the lines of The Longest Night or, as preferred by the executive producer, The Long Night. Of course, if there is one thing Game of Thrones has taught us all, it is that “the night is dark and full of terrors”. Yes! The prequel will encompass the origin story of one of the main antagonists in GOT — the White Walkers. In this era, they are referred to as “The Others”, and the series is said to lead up to an epic confrontation that is titled “The Long Night”.

Executive producer, author, and the mastermind behind the series, George R.R. Martin, shared a couple of juicy details during an interview with Entertainment Weekly that is sure to get fans almost as eager to watch this prequel as they were for the GoT finale! In the upcoming series, Westeros is an entirely different place.

It should go without saying that the Starks will have a place in the prequel as we know from GoT that the Stark family descended from the First Men. The Lannister family, on the other hand, saw their rise only later, and so, they aren’t expected to be featured in the prequel. Casterly Rock is most definitely there and is yet to be crookedly swindled from the Casterlys by Lann the Clever, who eventually founded House Lannister. It is unclear whether the prequel will extend so far as to tell this part of Westeros’ history, though. Of course, it will be very hard to think of a time in Westeros without the Lannisters as they certainly made a very big impression in Game of Thrones!

The prequel predates the rise of Valyria, and so, it is a long way before the Valyrians come across the dragons of the Fourteen Flames and well before they tame them with their magic. House Targaryen is the last surviving house of Dragonriders, so the prequel will not feature them either. When fans consider that the prequel won’t include the Targaryens, there was a wave of disappointment due to the lack of dragons, but there will be mammoths and even Direwolves. In fact, there may even be a dragon or two in the later part of the prequel if we’re lucky! The original idea that Martin had for Game of Thrones didn’t feature actual dragons at all, and the credit goes to his fellow friend Phyllis Eisenstein, for convincing him to include the wondrous beasts in the series.

Ultimately, the prequel is more of a historical account of generational stories, and it spans across 150 years with a wide array of characters and their stories. It is supposedly told in the voice of Archermaester Gyldayn.

Another whopper — Westeros is composed of not just seven kingdoms, as a result of Aegon’s conquest, but a staggering one hundred! The prequel is guaranteed to be full of blood and death, but then again, as Martin points out in his interview with Entertainment Weekly, that is the nature of history itself – why should an imaginary history be all that different! Naturally, these are all petty kingdoms with barely any degree of order; thus, more chaos and lawlessness than what was witnessed in GoT. Things are about to get wild, folks!

So, goodbye King’s Landing, goodbye Targaryens, and most importantly, goodbye Iron Throne! Game of Thrones’ fans can get ready to say hello to the history of Westeros!