George R.R. Martin Just Dropped a Ton of Details About the ‘GoT’ Prequel

The final season of Game of Thrones may already be fading to a distant memory of coffee cups and inexplicable character development, but HBO isn't done with Westeros yet. The first Game of Thrones prequel is already in production on a pilot, but HBO has been unsurprisingly secretive about the new show. Luckily, George R.R. Martin took a well-deserved break from finishing Winds of Winter to dish some details about the upcoming series.

On Tuesday, Entertainment Weekly published an interview with Martin about the show that he originally wanted to call The Long Night. Between that name and the fact that the show will be set thousands of years before Game of Thrones, it stands to reason that it will follow the original White Walker invasion that inspired the construction of the Wall.

But since "The Long Night" was already the title of that extraordinarily dark battle episode where the White Walkers met their weak conclusion, HBO probably won't go with Martin's idea, though they're considering similar titles, apparently. "I heard a suggestion that it could be called The Longest Night, which is a variant I wouldn’t mind," Martin told EW. "That would be pretty good."

Regardless of its title, Martin promises that the show will still feature the White Walkers and everyone's favorite stoic, bearded Westeros family, the Starks. And that means more direwolves, too. "The Starks will definitely be there," Martin said, according to EW. "Obviously the White Walkers are here—or as they’re called in my books, The Others—and that will be an aspect of it," Martin says. "There are things like direwolves and mammoths."

Don't expect to see any Lannisters, though. "The Lannisters aren’t there yet, but Casterly Rock is certainly there; it’s like the Rock of Gibraltar," he continued. "It’s actually occupied by the Casterlys—for whom it’s still named after in the time of Game of Thrones."

The Seven Kingdoms will be a little different, too—namely, there will be a whole lot more than just seven. "We talk about the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros; there were seven kingdoms at the time of Aegon’s Conquest," Martin said. "But if you go back further then there are nine kingdoms, and 12 kingdoms, and eventually you get back to where there are a hundred kingdoms—petty kingdoms—and that’s the era we’re talking about here."

The Long Night or The Even Longer Night or whatever will star Naomi Watts and is due sometime next year—which is more than we can say about Winds of Winter. Apparently, Martin's writing time in that isolated cabin didn't turn out so well.