HBO knows that we still haven’t recovered from the dreadful final season of the hit fantasy series Game of Thrones. For years, we were consumed with George R.R. Martin’s Seven Kingdoms where various legendary Houses — Stark, Lannister, Targaryen, and so forth fought for power and control.

The buildup leading up to the final season was absolutely legendary. We waited for two years to see how it would all pan out with the Night King, his White Walkers and the fight for the Iron Throne. Unfortunately — series creators and showrunners DB Weiss and David Benioff let us all down.

To say that the final season and the series finale was lackluster is a massive understatement. Fans were so enraged that many called for an entire redo of the final season. Sadly we aren’t going to get what we want — but HBO might have a little something up their sleeves for us.

The ‘Game of Thrones’ prequel ‘House of Dragons’ is coming

After pulling the plug on a highly anticipated prequel temporarily coined The Long Night starring Naomi Watts — HBO announced that another GoT prequel, House of Dragons would be coming to the network instead. Based on GRRM’s Fire & Blood — HBO has already ordered a 10-episode first season of the show.

As much as Game of Thrones centered the Starks — this series is set some 300 years before the events of the original show and will focus on Aegon I Targaryen and his sisters/wives Visenya and Rhaenys. The OG Targaryens conquered most of Westeros with their dragons. They formed the Seven Kingdoms (except for Dorne) and were able to hold it until Robert Baratheon’s rebellion when Jamie Lannister stabbed the Mad King in the back.

So far we know that Miguel Sapochnik, who directed GoT episodes like “Hardhome,” “The Winds of Winter,” and “The Battle of the Bastards” is acting as co-showrunner along with the series creator Ryan Condal who worked with GRRM to bring the show to life.

HBO just sent out a cryptic tweet about ‘Game of Thrones’

Since we already know that House of Dragons is coming — GoT fans were shook when HBO tweeted three simple words — “Winter is coming.” Obviously, any fan worth their salt knows that these are the words of warning that Ned Stark delivered to everyone he encountered during the first season of Thrones.

Since we doubt very much that HBO is simply delivering a weather warning — fans are falling over themselves trying to figure out what this could mean.

HBO might be announcing another ‘Game of Thrones’ prequel

After that disastrous final season, some fans aren’t here for HBO and their cryptic tweets. One fan responded, “Unless it’s a season 8 remake – delete your account.” Another added, “Leave us alone.” Yet another user reminded us all of what we’ve gone through. They said, “We waited for winter to come for about 9 years, and it came bad, really bad.”

Still, there are still some optimistic GoT fans left. They are speculating that along with House of Dragons were are getting a House Stark spinoff. We’re trying to manage our expectations until we know more.