News just broke out that HBO has officially ordered a Game of Thrones prequel pilot episode set thousands of years before the events of the main series and books. The fantasy epic hasn’t even come to a conclusion yet, with the final eight season due sometime in 2019, but HBO knows a good thing when they see it and want to ensure subscriptions stay up after the show is complete. So naturally, they want to continue to explore the history of Westeros and all it’s complicated families.

The untitled spin off series was co-created by George R.R. Martin, the author of the original books. Martin will serve as an executive producer on the series, so who knows how that will affect his writing schedule. The sixth and seventh volumes of A Song of Ice and Fire have yet to be released, with book six The Winds of Winter being continuously delayed. The fifth novel, A Dance with Dragons was released back in 2011 and a spin off book titled Fire and Blood, is due in late 2018 and will be an in-universe history text.

The prequel series will be co-produced by Jane Goldman (Kingsman: The Golden Circle, X-Men: First Class), who will serve as the showrunner. Joining them are Game of Thrones producer Vince Geradis and Bloodline co-creator Daniel Zelman. Game of Thrones showrunners Benioff and Weiss are not involved in this production, as they move to a galaxy far, far away for their Star Wars film series once the main Game of Thrones series has concluded. A very brief teased was shared on THR:

“Set thousands of years before the events of Thrones, the project chronicles the world’s descent from the golden Age of Heroes into its darkest hour. A logline from the network teased the plot without divulging any specifics: “Only one thing is for sure: from the horrifying secrets of Westeros’ history to the true origin of the White Walkers, the mysteries of the East to the Starks of legend… it’s not the story we think we know.”

So what could the show be about? Setting the plot thousands of years before the main story, the showrunners are free to do whatever they want within the realm of possibilities for Martin’s universe. With the author being involved in this production, he’ll likely guide the show in a direction he sees fit. So considering it’s so far back in the timeline, it’s likely than fans can expect a lot of dragons and maybe even the origin of the White Walkers.

The bigger question is how directly will the show impact the main storyline? I’m personally hoping not at all (aside from the White Walkers bit-I’m okay with that). But I don’t want to see the same families with the same conflicts. Being so far removed from Jon Snow and company, the show can give us new families and wars to get invested in, with some families possibly getting wiped out of existence, never to be heard of again. The world is literally their playground and Goldman will be free to create her own stories in Martin’s backyard.

There’s no word on a release date but if I had to guess, a year to a year and a half after the final episode of season 8 airs would be a likely place to air the premiere of this series. Are you excited for more Game of Thrones? Let us know in the comments and check out our piece on the new Spider-Man Miles Morales and racism in television in light of the Rosanne scandal.