It was just the other day, when we shared the photo that Maisie Williams posted of her bloody trainers, that we also mentioned that a Game Of Thrones prequel was likely in the works.
Well, it seems that it's pretty much confirmed now. According to The Belfast Telegraph, staff at the Paint Hall studios, which served as the main studio for Game Of Thrones, have been briefed that the next major project to be filmed in the studios will be a series set thousands of years before the events of the hugely successful fantasy drama.
HBO have already given an order for a pilot to be made for the as-yet-untitled prequel. Kingsman writer Jane Goldman and George RR Martin, who wrote the best-selling book series A Song Of Ice And Fire on which the HBO series is based, will be behind the prequel.
According to Martin, the prequel will have an entirely different cast to the original series - and while it is officially still untitled, there's a teeny, tiny chance that it might be called The Long Night. Shooting will begin in October.
Taking place thousands of years before any of the events of Game Of Thrones - hence the entirely new cast - it will apparently occur during the fall of the Age Of Heroes and will explore both the history of the Stark family as well as the origins of the White Walkers.
Filming for Game Of Thrones' eight and final season just wrapped up and it seems that it will premiere sometime in 2019. Which gives us enough time to go back to the very beginning and watch all seven preceding seasons. Twice or more if we feel like it.
The news will undoubtedly be of great relief to Game Of Thrones fans, who have been following the fantasy drama since it began in April 2011. And while the series has a knack for killing off its lead characters, it still inspired a hell of a lot of devotion.
Who knows if the prequel will be as unpredictable and break as many rules of TV as the original series did, but whatever happens, it's bound to be an epic, edge-of-your-seat drama that will get us totally hooked. Again.
Featured Image Credit: HBOTopics: Ireland, Entertainment, TV and Film, Game of Thrones