It's been a real game of thrones behind the scenes at HBO this week. The first prequel, Jane Goldman's far distant origin story for the white walkers, was axed at the pilot stage. Meanwhile, a Targaryen prequel, Ryan Condal's House of the Dragon, was ordered straight to full series with no pilot. It's great news for fans of dragons and dastardly doings, but terrible news for fans of the books. And George Rr Martin's recent statements do not make it any better.

Martin said: "Ryan Condal has already done a considerable amount of writing on HOUSE OF THE DRAGON, but a lot of work remains ahead of us. "There’s a writer’s room to be assembled, episodes to be broken down and scripted, a cast and crew to be assembled, budgets and production details to be worked out... I expect to be involved in all of this to some extent… and, who knows, if things work out, I may even be able to script a few episodes, as I did for the first four seasons of GAME OF THRONES." What is clear is that HBO very much wants Martin involved. All the criticism levelled at the final seasons of Game of Thrones centred on how it lost its way once it ran out of source material from the unfinished books. There are now two massive problems for fans hoping to read A Dream of Spring in the next ten years, highlighted by another recent comment from Martin. GAME OF THRONES FINAL EPISODE: SHOCK DAENERYS DELETED SCENE

George RR Martin book release date news

George RR Martin: Did Game of Thrones suffer after the books ran out?

Firstly HBO will want Martin involved with the production of House of the Dragon. Secondly, they will want all the source material in place first. As well as his mentioned involvement in setting up the new show and presumably its ongoing production, Martin has said it typically took about a month's work each time he prepared a script for Game of Thrones. This is a lot of time away from writing his books. As for those books, HBO will want to see more of the histories that support their upcoming show. Martin previously admitted the first Fire and Blood book was prioritised over The Winds of Winter due to commitments to HBO: "(He said) it includes material in it that is going to be the basis of some of these successor shows, so maybe we should get it out first before the shows, and they agreed, so they said, ‘Yeah, finish that one and then go back to Winds of Winter.’” The second Fire and Blood book will presumably now be a priority for HBO.

George RR Martin: Will Fire and Blood come before Game of Thrones?