HBO Has Officially Ordered A 'Game Of Thrones' Prequel, But Don't Expect To See Jon Snow

Get ready to learn a whole lot of history about Westeros, because HBO has officially ordered a Game of Thrones prequel series, and it will be set thousands of years before the saga that fans have been following. The newly picked-up pilot, which is still unnamed, is the first Game of Thrones spinoff series to be ordered to air on HBO, and the network is giving fans some details about how the new show will fit into the Game of Thrones universe. So, what will the Game of Thrones prequel be about? Let's go over everything we know about the spinoff.

Over the weekend, HBO announced that it has officially picked up its first Game of Thrones spinoff. The announcement comes a little over a year after the network commissioned multiple Game of Thrones spinoffs be pitched. With five different spinoffs in the works, HBO programming chief Casey Bloys stated at the beginning of 2018 that he is open to picking up none, all five, or anything in between, though he would most likely just pick up one of the five spinoffs and leave it at that. So, there is still a possibility that this picked-up prequel will not be the only Game of Thrones spinoff to make it to air.

The new series is created by Kingsman and X-Men screenwriter Jane Goldman along with Game of Thrones creator George R. R. Martin, of course. HBO has released a cryptic, brief description of the new prequel, and confirms exactly what era the new show will be set in:

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.

As you can tell from that description, the new series will take Game of Thrones fans all the way back to the earliest days in the history of Westeros. The show will reportedly be set within the ancient Age of Heroes, which is a mysterious era in Westerosi history that occurred thousands of years before the events of Game of Thrones. So, yeah — don't expect to see any familiar face from GoT pop up in the spinoff series, because all of the characters we know so well will be centuries away from ever being born.

HBO's description does give hardcore Game of Thrones fans a pretty good idea of what the new prequel might focus on. The brief logline emphasizes the origins of the White Walkers and the Starks of legend as two important elements of the new series, which seems to be pointing to Brandon the Builder, a legendary figure mentioned in GoT lore as the founder of House Stark. Bran the Builder is also credited with building the Wall and establishing the Night's Watch to keep the White Walkers out of Westeros during the Age of Heroes. It sounds like he could be the protagonist of the prequel series.

Along with Brandon the Builder, Game of Thrones fans will likely see the other legendary rulers credited with founding the various houses that make up the main series, such as Lann the Clever, a trickster who established the Lannister House. The only character who has appeared in Game of Thrones that we might see in this prequel series is the Night King, who could feasibly have survived the thousands of years between the two eras.

Hopefully, we will get more details on what this prequel will look like pretty soon, but it won't hit the air for a while. HBO execs have said that they will not air any Game of Thrones spinoffs until the main series reaches its end, which it is slated to do in 2019. At least this prequel news will help cheer up fans that are sad to see the main series go away.