Warning: Contains Spoilers
HBOIn case you missed it, Game of Thrones is currently shattering its way through our TVs and into our eye holes.
In case you missed the other bit of news, the current season is sadly the end of Game of Thrones as we know it.
But fear not fretful fans of the Westerosi, because before too long we’ll have ourselves a Game of Thrones prequel, which is set to explain the origins of everyone’s secret crush the Night King, as well as his legion of White Walkers and the secrets hidden within Westeros’ dark history.
There’s no official release date just yet, though HBO have shared a few tantalising details, as well as cast members.
As HBO describe the 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. 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, only one thing is for sure: It’s not the story we think we know.
So it seems we could be getting the backstory to the Lannister’s wealth and their debts, the Starks and their secret liaisons, and – most intriguingly – the origins of the Night King.
As we’ve seen in previous seasons of Game of Thrones, the Night King was created by the Children of the Forest, by ‘sacrificing a captured man in a spiral ‘henge of stones”, as screenwriter Dave Hill explained.
However, the brief flashback scene has always been a source of debate for fans of the show, who are eager to see more of this period in GoT history.
Luckily for us, writer George R.R. Martin is working on it, along with showrunner Jane Goldman (Kick-Ass, X-Men: First Class, Kingsman: The Secret Service).
Other than a few historic origin stories though, it’s unlikely we’ll see any characters we recognise, as Martin himself wrote in a blog post:
Every one of the concepts under discussion is a prequel, rather than a sequel. Some may not even be set on Westeros. Rather than ‘spinoff’ or ‘prequel,’ however, I prefer the term ‘successor show.’ That’s what I’ve been calling them.
Martin has also said he thinks the show should be called ‘The Long Night’, which (as well as the recent episode) refers to the period in Westeros after the Age of Heroes, when winter lasted ‘an entire generation’.
Oscar-nominee Naomi Watts is set to star as ‘a charismatic socialite hiding a dark secret’. While Miranda Richardson, Marquis Richardson, John Simm, Richard McCabe and Jamie Campbell Bower have also been added to the cast.
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Charlie Cocksedge is a journalist and sub-editor at UNILAD. He graduated from the University of Manchester with an MA in Creative Writing, where he learnt how to write in the third person, before getting his NCTJ. His work has also appeared in such places as The Guardian, PN Review and the bin.