Take the Black Podcast: We look back on the second half of Game of Thrones season 7 by David Harris (Razor)

We know that multiple Game of Thrones prequel series are on the way, but up to this point, there’s been some ambiguity regarding just how many. HBO kept saying there were four, but George R.R. Martin — ever the wild man loose cannon — hinted that there were five. Now, Entertainment Weekly has confirmed the truth: there are five prequel series in the making, and the fifth will be developed by longtime Game of Thrones staff writer Bryan Cogman, pictured below doing something that speaks for itself:

Bryan Cogman: Game of Thrones cut a scene featuring Jon and Ghost from “Stormborn” https://t.co/oXn00O2eOz https://t.co/X6RZz6G43a pic.twitter.com/6JWHtNvTtf — Ghost A. Boo (@ghost_a_boo) July 24, 2017

Cogman joined the Game of Thrones gang in season 1 as a writing assistant to showrunners David Benioff and Dan Weiss. After they had him take a crack at writing the fourth episode — “Cripples, Bastards, and Broken Things” — they brought him on a staff writer in season 2. Since then, he’s written episodes like “Kissed by Fire” (the one with Jaime’s bathtub speech), “The Laws of Gods and Men” (the one with Tyrion’s trial), and this past season’s “Stormborn.” He also wrote the early History and Lore features, and still manages them to this day. A long-time lover of the Song of Ice and Fire novels, he’s gained a reputation as the “loremaster” in the Game of Thrones writer’s room, the guy who makes sure the scripts jibe with the invented history of Westeros.

So Cogman is deep in, deeper than any of the other writers chosen to develop prequels. Per EW, he’ll be “working closely” with Martin on the project, although we’re not sure if he’ll be working any more closely than the other writers. (Happy birthday to Martin today, by the way.) As for what his prequel will be about, no one knows. All we know is that none of the prequels will be about Robert’s Rebellion, nor will any adapt Martin’s as-yet-unfinished Tales of Dunk and Egg novellas. Of the five writers working on these projects, only Jane Goldman has come close to revealing any details, and she hasn’t revealed much.

Also, we should keep in mind that although there are five prequels in development, none are guaranteed to go to air. The most likely scenario is that the writers will turn in their work to HBO programming president Casey Bloys, and that he’ll greenlight one (maaaaaaybe two) of them. But with his experience, Cogman’s prequel stands a good chance of being the lucky winner.

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