HBO announces the first Game of Thrones prequel series “House of the Dragon”

Game of Thrones prequel news has been heavy today. Hours after we heard about the cancellation of Jane Goldman’s Game of Thrones prequel, we today got an official announcement from HBO, ordering the first ever Game of Thrones prequel, straight to series! The show will be called “House of the Dragon“. Read on!

“House of the Dragon” will be written by Ryan Condal, with George R.R. Martin on-board as a co-executive producer. The project is based on Fire and Blood, GRRM’s 2019 book which explores the history of House Targaryen, leading up to the civil war that ultimately led to the doom of the once great house. The series will be set 300 years prior to the events of Game of Thrones.

#HouseOfTheDragon, a #GameofThrones prequel is coming to @HBO.

The series is co-created by @GRRMSpeaking and Ryan Condal. Miguel Sapochnik will partner with Condal as showrunner and will direct the pilot and additional episodes. Condal will be writing the series. pic.twitter.com/9ttMzElgXm

— Game of Thrones (@GameOfThrones) October 29, 2019

Now, we know that HBO had multiple Game of Thrones prequels under development. The first one, helmed by Jane Goldman, and dubbed The Long Night, starring Naomi Watts had gotten a pilot order. Following that, today, it was announced that HBO will not be moving forward with it. In the meantime, we had recently talked about another prequel being close to a pilot order, but HBO has now skipped the pilot stage and directly ordered the show to a series, as announced by HBO programming chief Casey Bloys at today’s event for AT&T’s new streaming’s service, HBO Max. Bloys said:

“The Game of Thrones universe is so rich with stories. We look forward to exploring the origins of House Targaryen and the earlier days of Westeros along with Miguel, Ryan and George.”

Miguel Sapochnik, who directed multiple battle episodes of Thrones, will direct the pilot and more episodes, and serve as a showrunner along with Condal, as a part of his new deal with HBO to produce content for HBO and HBO Max. Vince Gerardis will also serve as an executive producer.

The announcement is the most exciting development we have had about the prequels yet, and the show is expected to arrive after HBO Max does, in May 2020. Being one of the flagship offerings of the platform, we expect it to arrive soon, but no release time slot has been mentioned at this point.

Excited? We sure are! Talk to us in the comments, down below!