New GOT Spin-off CONFIRMED

Yes, you’ve heard it right: HBO is in the market for a new series set in Westeros. According to TVLine.com:

“We are doing a pilot that Jane Goldman wrote,” HBO programming president Casey Bloys confirmed for reporters at the Television Critics Association summer press tour on Wednesday. With HBO exploring five different GoT spinoff concepts, “we’d be lucky to get one that we’re very, very excited about, and we did get that. We’re just starting the search for a director… we have to cast it. We hope to be shooting sometime in the new year.”

Yes, yes, yes– HBO was exploring a grand total of FIVE different storylines, and they settled on one to film. Don’t get too excited for a young Bobby B. or lil’ Ned Stark fucking up the Riverlands though. This prequel will take place thousands of years before the Game of Thrones that we know and love, and will center on:

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.”

As a long-time fan and an even longer-time nerd, my personal worry is that this new series will go the way of Battlestar Galatica’s prequel, Caprica, which started off strong, but fell apart thanks to muddling already-established fiction with its new, grandiose ideas. The world established by the original series was changed by rules established in Caprica, which was originally supposed to be a seperate series. Jumping on the BSG bandwagon didn’t work for Caprica, but with thousands of years of history between the Westeros we know and love, and the one of days long past, we might be safe from that.

So, what can we expect to see? Here’s a few ideas from a book fan:

– Brandon the Builder, the Stark who built The Wall in the North
– The Long Night, a generations-long winter that was both cold and deadly. This is when we first see the White Walkers make an appearance, and eventually the Night King.
– We may even go as far as the migration of the Targaryeans, as that has long been a favorite subject of George R.R. Martin, who is an executive producer on the new series. But that takes place a long, long time after the Age of Heroes mentioned above, so I doubt we’ll see that.

The original Game of Thrones will begin airing its final season in April of next year. After that, they will begin filming this new spin-off. Will you watch it? Are you excited to consume this new take on Westeros? Or do you think that HBO should let sleeping direwolves lie?