The eighth and final season of Game of Thrones doesn’t premiere until next year, but already details are starting to trickle out about what HBO will do next with the massively popular franchise.
While talking with reporters at the Primetime Emmys earlier this week, author George R.R. Martin not only disclosed that HBO is working on “five prequel shows,” some of which will unfold several thousand years earlier in the history of Westeros. But he also named one of the shows, which apparently has the working title of The Long Night.
“I’m not allowed to say too much about them or HBO will pull out all my fingernails, but one of the shows — working title The Long Night — has been greenlit to pilot,” Martin said, as reported by the Game of Thrones fan site Winteriscoming.net. “Jane Goldman is the showrunner…They’re working on that one right now. I don’t know when they’ll actually start shooting, but that’s going forward. And meanwhile we have four others in various stages of development.”
As the site goes on to point out, The Long Night “is the name given to the first war between the White Walkers and the living people of Westeros. If that’s what the new show is mainly concerned with, there’s no need to tie it down with Game of Thrones branding. People will pick up that the two shows are related, and a new title will help the series stand apart from its predecessor.”
We’ll have to wait and see, meanwhile, if all five prequels actually come to fruition. Some of the reporting out there speculates that HBO may have been gathering a group of strong prequel storylines and may move forward with just the best. Game of Thrones writer Bryan Cogman was said to be involved with one of the prequels but recently inked a deal to create content for Amazon, so maybe that means his prequel isn’t moving forward, or maybe HBO will just go with someone else instead. There’s even the outside chance Martin himself has outdated information — that HBO’s plans shifted before he was aware when he spoke to the press this week.
Meantime, we certainly can’t wait for the final season, anticipation for which is building up to a fever pitch. Just a week ago, we reported on some comments from Tyrion Lannister actor Peter Dinklage who said the coming season is so big, so epic, that “You are in for it. Truly.”
Here’s to early 2019, when the final season arrives at last!
