Although Game of Thrones will wrap up after the eighth season is aired in 2019, HBO will not give up on the world of Westeros. The network announced on Friday that they have placed an order for a Game of Thrones prequel pilot, which will be thousands of years before the events in the original series.
The pilot will be created by Kingsman: The Secret Service writer Jane Goldman and George R. R. Martin, who wrote A Song of Ice and Fire novel series on which Game of Thrones is based on. If the pilot ends up getting a series order, Goldman will serve as a series’ showrunner.
HBO revealed a short synopsis for this Game of Thrones prequel:
“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. And only one thing is for sure: From the horrifying secrets of Westeros’ history to the true origin of the white walkers, the mysteries of the East, to the Starks of legend … it’s not the story we think we know.”
Back in 2017, HBO hired several writers to develop scripts for multiple Game of Thrones prequel series including Jane Goldman, Carly Wray (Westworld), Max Borenstein (Kong: Skull Island), and Brian Helgeland (Legend). This is the one that managed to get a pilot order, and also might be the last one.
HBO’s Casey Bloys spoke with The Hollywood Reporter about the prequels back in July 2017 and revealed that the network isn’t planning on making more than one Game of Thrones prequel series.
“My sense right now is we would be very lucky if one of the four rises to the level that we have set.” – said Bloys. “Now, theoretically, what if they’re all great? That’s a high-class problem that I’ll solve when it comes to that. But knowing what we know about the development process, that’s why we wanted to increase our odds. But I do not see a scenario where we have more than one. But again, high-class problem.”
