Entertainment Weekly has released new details on the Game of Thrones prequel, which is tentatively called The Long Night.
Author of the series George R.R. Martin has provided some clarification on the prequel, stating that it takes 5,000 years before the events of Game of Thrones.
“… it’s closer to 5,000 years. But you’re right. 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.”
According to timelines established on this Wiki page, dragons did not enter onto the scene until after the events of The Long Night.
While Westeros was recovering from The Long Night, in Essos, the peaceful sheep-herding folk of the Valyrian peninsula find 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.
And the rise of the House of Targaryen is even further along in the timeline, so it remains unclear if we will see them in this prequel as well. For a long time Martin had stated that at one time, he had considered not including dragons in the Game of Thrones universe at all.
did consider in the very early stages not having the dragons in there. I wanted the Targaryen’s symbol to be the dragons, but I did play with the notion that maybe it was like a psionic power, that it was pyrokinesis — that they could conjure up flames with their minds. I went back and forth. My friend and fellow fantasy writer Phyllis Eisenstein actually was the one who convinced me to put the dragons in, and I dedicated the third book to her. And I think it was the right call.
The new series has not yet officially been green lit yet, but the pilot will star Naomi Watts.