Game Of Thrones has ordered a new prequel just hours after plans for a Naomi Watts centred series was scrapped.
House Of The Dragon will focus on House Targaryen, the fiery and volatile family who Daenerys Targaryen (Emilia Clarke) was in the lineage of over the course of the main series.
Casey Bloys, president of HBO programming made the announcement at the launch of the HBO Max streaming platform in LA.
He said: ‘It’s my pleasure to announce today that we are ordering House of the Dragon straight to series for HBO.
‘It tells the story of House Targaryen and the early days of Westeros.’
Set 300 years before the events of Game Of Thrones, little is known about House Of The Dragon’s plot line, other than its connection to the Targaryen family history at the beginning of Westeros.
According to Game Of Thrones mythology, the Targaryen clan are one of the former Royal houses within the Seven Kingdoms, who ruled an empire.
Often followed by three dragons, their family declaration is ‘fire and blood’ and they often left both in their wake as they attempted to take over the kingdoms and eventually the walls outside Westeros.
But their thirst for power often saw members of the family descend into madness as their behaviour became more erratic and violent – and at most posts would end in their death.
This was the same fate that held Daenerys in the show – ending with her burning down King’s Landing on the back of a dragon before eventually being killed before getting to sit on the throne she craved.
The announcement comes just hours after it was revealed that another prequel, tentatively titled Bloodmoon, would be scrapped despite a pilot being filmed this year.
The spin-off from Jane Goldman and George RR Martin starred Naomi Watts and was set thousands of years before the original fantasy series.
It was the first Game Of Thrones project not to be given the go-ahead.
Sources at The Hollywood Reporter claimed that Goldman emailed the cast to share the news that the project had been binned.
Naomi was at the helm of the new show, with the likes of John Simm, Miranda Richardson and Marquis Rodriguez also on the bill.
House Of The Dragon is yet to be given a release date.
Got a showbiz story?
If you’ve got a story, video or pictures get in touch with the Metro.co.uk Entertainment team by emailing us celebtips@metro.co.uk, calling 020 3615 2145 or by visiting our Submit Stuff page – we’d love to hear from you.
MORE: After Game of Thrones’ final season, I’m glad David Benioff and DB Weiss have left Star Wars alone
