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As one Game of Thrones prequel dies, another rises from the ashes.

HBO announced Tuesday that its GoT prequel project about the Targaryen civil war has officially received a full series order for 10 episodes.

The spot-on title: House of the Dragon.

Also announced: Emmy-winning GoT director Miguel Sapochnik will serve as co-showrunner and direct the pilot. Sapochnik directed acclaimed episodes such as “Battle of the Bastards,” “Hardhome” and “The Long Night.”

The announcement comes just hours after news broke that the network’s first GoT prequel project from showrunner Jane Goldman starring Naomi Watts was not moving forward.

The new prequel was co-created by author George R.R. Martin and Ryan Condal (Colony) — who will also be a showrunner on the series.

A poster was also released with the tagline “Fire Will Reign”:

Image zoom HBO

“The Game of Thrones universe is so rich with stories,” says Casey Bloys, president, HBO programming. “We look forward to exploring the origins of House Targaryen and the earlier days of Westeros along with Miguel, Ryan and George.”

House of the Dragon is based on Martin’s 2018 book Fire & Blood, a history of House Targaryen in Westeros that spans roughly 150 years. GoT writer-producer Bryan Cogman originally developed the project at the network. Like the other prequel, the story takes place long before the events in GoT, but not nearly as far back as the Goldman project (a couple hundred years before Ned Stark and Daenerys Targaryen, give or take). So Westeros will look different than it is in Game of Thrones, but not too dramatically different based on what Martin has written about the era.

House of the Dragon also takes place during a time in Westeros that has plenty of dramatic established history penned by Martin to serve as a backbone for a story, whereas the pilot only had some vague references to build on.

The events in the new series will eventually lead up to The Dance of the Dragons, a massive civil war in the Seven Kingdoms held between two rival branches of House Targaryen.

The prequel order is the latest in a dramatic succession of Game of Thrones-related news over the last 24 hours. On Monday, Lucasfilm announced GoT showrunners David Benioff and Dan Weiss (who opted not to be involved in the prequels) are stepping away from their planned Star Wars trilogy. Then the Goldman project — which shot a full pilot in Northern Ireland this summer — was scrapped. Now HBO’s other prequel has lept from development into an official series order.

The news was announced at WarnerMedia’s presentation to investors on Tuesday focused on the launch of its 2020 streaming service HBO Max.

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