Game of Thrones Prequel Odds: Characters, Premiere Date and More

• A Game of Thrones prequel is coming to HBO in 2020. 
• It will take place roughly 5,000 years before A Song of Ice and Fire during the Age of Heroes.
• Little else is known about the show, so we’re setting odds on which characters will appear, when it will premiere, and more.

Wrap your warmest wolfskin around your shoulders and saddle up, because the recently announced Game of Thrones prequel will be taking us back to chilly Westeros.

Most of the details are to-be-announced, but here’s what we do know:

• Naomi Watts (Mulholland Dr., Birdman) will play one of the lead roles, “a charismatic socialite hiding a dark secret,” according to Variety.
• Josh Whitehouse (Poldark) will be one of the male leads.
• The prequel will take place in Westeros, thousands of years before the events in Game of Thrones.
• It will chronicle Westeros’ “descent from the … Age of Heroes into its darkest hour.”
• It won’t premiere until April 2020 at the earliest.

The sparse details have only piqued the interest of hardcore GoT fans, who are now doing their best three-eyed raven impression, peering into future to fill in the blanks.

We are joining in on the prognosticatory fun.

Which characters will appear in the Game of Thrones prequel?

The prequel will take place during/cover the events of The Long Night (a winter which “lasted an entire generation” and saw the first conquest of the White Walkers). That leaves a lot of leeway when it comes to which characters will be in the show — a generation’s worth, to be precise — but it makes it very likely that we will see some of the legendary names that have come up in GoT.

For instance, we know that The Long Night ends with the Battle for the Dawn, when Azor Ahai subdues the White Walkers. There’s a good chance we see the mythical flaming-sword wielder. There’s also a good chance that Azor Ahai and The Last Hero are the same person, ergo the identical odds.

Show producers have hinted that the prequel will cover the origins of House Stark, which was founded by Bran the Builder. You can probably bank on meeting Bran Stark’s namesake.

Game of Thrones prequel props

The GoT budget went up and up and up over the years. The budget for the final season was $90 million (for just six episodes), almost twice as much as the first season ($50 million for ten episodes).

Don’t expect the first season of the prequel to get quite that much green, but it is ambitious in scope and will require substantial outlays, according to HBO’s VP of Drama, Francesca Orsi.

“$50 million (per season) would never fly for what we are trying to do. We are going big.”

— Francesca Orsi, HBO’s VP of Drama, per The Hollywood Reporter

As for the premiere date, one year after GoT season 8 is the earliest we might see it. In all likelihood, we’ll have to wait a few months longer. We likely won’t have to go without our RDA of dragons. Even though dragons don’t really feature in the legends surrounding The Long Night, producers know that they are a huge part of GoT’s popularity.

Something tells us we’ll see at least one in the prequel.

Are there any characters, storylines, or events you hope are covered in the prequel? Let us in the comments or on Twitter.