George R.R. Martin Reveals New Details About ‘Game Of Thrones’ Prequel

It was announced several months ago that a prequel to the hit HBO show, Game of Thrones, would be put into production. There have been no updates regarding the show for a long time, but author and executive producer George R.R. Martin has finally revealed new facts about the show.

Showrunner Jane Goldman is currently filming the pilot for the show in Northern Ireland. Martin has also previously revealed that the show takes place roughly 5,000 years before the events in Game of Thrones when Westeros was a very different place. He also revealed that it leads up to an epic confrontation with the White Walkers, who are also known as The Long Knight.

Martin has further mentioned five other facts about the show.

He first talks about how Westeros, in the prequel, is divided into roughly 100 kingdoms.

“We talk about the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros; there were Seven Kingdoms at the time of Aegon’s Conquest,” says Martin. “But if you go back further then there are nine kingdoms, 12 kingdoms, and eventually you get back to where there are a hundred kingdoms – petty kingdoms – and that’s the era we’re talking about here.”

Martin then talks about the Starks and direwolves. The fan-favorite family was still around during the given time period, as the Starks were descended from the First Men.

“The Starks will definitely be there,” Martin confirmed.

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There were also questions regarding whether or not there were going to be any dragons. The prequel actually predates dragons, but there are other creatures that will be featured in the show, such as the direwolves.

“Obviously the White Walkers are here – or as they’re called in my books, The Others – and that will be an aspect of it,” he said. “There are things like direwolves and mammoths.”

While the Stark family is present, the Lannister family is not. The prequel predates the rise of the Lannister family, but Martin says another family will be currently residing in the future Lannister home.

“The Lannisters aren’t there yet, but Castlery Rock is certainly there; it’s like the Rock of Gibraltar,” he said.

“It’s actually occupied by the Casterlys – for whom it’s still named after in the time of Game of Thrones.”

The Casterlys were supposedly swindled from their home by Lann the Clever, who founded House Lannister. It is not confirmed if this tale will be told in the prequel, however.

The author has also talked about the show just has a large ensemble cast. However, HBO’s breakdown of the cast appeared to suggest that the show might be led by a trio of female leads (Naomi Watts, Naomi Ackie and Denise Gough).

“I hesitate to use the word ‘lead,'” he said. “As you know for Game of Thrones, we never even nominated anybody for lead actress or lead actor [during awards season] until recently; it was always for supporting [categories] because the show is such an ensemble. I think that will be true for this show too. We don’t have leads so much as a large ensemble cast.”

Given the fact that the prequel will have a lot more than just seven kingdoms, the cast for the prequel is going to be huge if they are going to acknowledge all the kingdoms in the past Westeros.

Last, but not least, Martin has revealed that the show might get a title that a lot of people are not expecting. He emphasized that the show is still untitled. He has also suggested the title The Long Night in the past. Although, there is the fact that the third episode of Game of Thrones season 8 is also titled “The Long Night.”

“I heard a suggestion that it could be called The Longest Night, which is a variant I wouldn’t mind,” said Martin. “That would be pretty good.”

While the author is working on the prequel pilot, he is also writing the sixth Ice and Fire novel The Winds of Winter.