A slew of reports hit the web recently teasing The Long Night, a Game of Thrones prequel coming to HBO with a title confirmed by none other than GoT creator George R.R. Martin himself. The story of the show unfolds thousands of years before the events in Westeros that we’re more familiar with.
Martin has taken to his so-called Not A Blog, though, to apologize and let us know that the prequel still doesn’t have a title yet. Oops. Martin had let that title slip when praising the recently announced casting of Naomi Watts in the prequel, and at the time it certainly seemed like an apt title. The Long Night sounds like a nod to Westeros’ long, dreary winter during the Age of Heroes and before the arrival of Dany’s dragons. However, HBO’s official position is that the prequel is still untitled. “Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea culpa,” the show’s creator wrote on his blog.
“HBO has informed me that the Jane Goldman pilot is not (yet) titled THE LONG NIGHT,” Martin writes. “(That) is certainly the title I prefer, but for the moment the pilot is still officially UNTITLED. So… mea culpa, mea culpa, mea culpa. Elsewise, the pilot is coming along well, with casting falling into place. I could tell you more, but I am not supposed to. We also have a couple of other successor shows still in development, but I cannot tell you about those either.”
In addition to Watts, HBO is continuing to round out the cast for the prequel, having snagged another name in the form of Poldark’s Josh Whitehouse. Beyond that, not much else is known about the series — though, again, it doesn’t appear to be the only prequel on deck, something we already knew and which Martin’s statement above seems to re-confirm.
As a reminder, Game of Thrones will be back next year for its final season on HBO. The next Westeros story in book form hits shelves later this month, with the arrival on November 20 of Martin’s Fire and Blood, which will delve into the history of the Targaryens in Westeros. Fans are also still waiting for the release of The Winds of Winter, the sixth novel in Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire series. If you check out that blog post above, though, Martin makes a super-quick reference to it. No details, but Martin says he’s working on a lot of things “including WINDS.”
