George R.R. Martin: Game of Thrones Prequel Won't Have Targaryens or Dragons

Game of Thrones is set to end next year, but HBO is already prepping for a prequel series that is set to be thousands of years before the War of the Five Kings. George R.R. Martin is attached to the show, and he reveals to us a bit about the timeline where the series takes place.

Talking to EW, Martin reveals that the show is set ‘5000 years' before the original series. He explains:

"Westeros is a very different place. There's no King's Landing. There's no Iron Throne. There are no Targaryens — Valyria has hardly begun to rise yet with its dragons and the great empire that it built. We're dealing with a different and older world and hopefully, that will be part of the fun of the series."

In the lore, it was said that the Targaryens came with their dragons after ‘The Long Night'—which is the tentative title that Martin wanted for the series. As per Westeros.org:

"While Westeros was recovering from The Long Night, in Essos, the peaceful sheep-herding folk of the Valyrian peninsula finds dragons lairing in the Fourteen Flames, an immense chain of volcanoes extending across the neck of the peninsula. The Valyrians tame the dragons with magic, which gives them the means to gain influence over the area. The Valyrian Freehold is established."

Though some may be bummed out that the Targaryens won't be appearing in the series, there's still a lot of interesting things we can catch in Westeros during this era. For one, it's possible that we could be seeing the construction of the Wall—which was said to have been built by Bran ‘the Builder' Stark with the help of magic and giants. Plus, we could be looking at the formation of the great houses like the Lannisters or the Baratheons. We may even get a look at House Gardner, the rulers of High Garden before power was handed over to the Tyrells by the Targaryens.

No release date has been set for the Game of Thrones prequel, but I can guess that they might want to release it by 2020, seeing that 2019 will see the release of Season 8.

See Also: George R.R. Martin's Wild Cards Getting Multiple Shows from Hulu