HBO president Casey Bloys provided an update on the Jane Goldman-George R.R. Martin scripted Game of Thrones prequel and there’s hope that production will be starting next year. HBO still has to cast and find a director.

There were earlier local reports a few weeks ago that production was starting in October in Belfast at The Paint Hall in the city’s Titanic Quarters. That is not true says Bloys in regards to the production start.

While there were a number of prequels in production at once, it was the Goldman one to win out, “That was the one we’re excited about” said Bloys. The other four aren’t happening at the moment. Bloys noted that some of them are dead and some are still possibilities but would not specify how many and which may be still alive. HBO did multiple scripts in an effort to develop the perfect spin-off, as fast as possible.

In regards to the final season of GOT, Bloys said at TCA “I’m not going to say what to expect (in the final season) through it’s pretty great” and that the premiere date is “Sometime in 2019…first half.”

Created by feature writer Jane Goldman (Kick-Ass, Kingsman) & Martin and written by Goldman, based on a story by her and Martin, the pilot, which was greenlit in June, is set thousands of years before the events of Game Of Thrones and none of the actors from the current show will appear on the prequel. The series is described as chronicling “the world’s descent from the golden Age of Heroes into its darkest hour. And 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.”

Writing in a blog post in June, Martin added, “This one really puts the pre in prequel, since it is set not ninety years before Game of Thrones (like Dunk & Egg), or a few hundred years, but rather ten thousand years (well, assuming the oral histories of the First Men are accurate, but there are maesters at the Citadel who insist it has only been half that long). We’re very early in the process, of course, with the pilot order just in.”