HBO Officially Greenlights Targaryen-Focused "Game of Thrones" Prequel!

Wowza, you guys... It's only Tuesday but already this has been quite a week!

Okay, so first things first... Late Monday (October 28), it was reported that "Game of Thrones" showrunners David Benioff and Dan Weiss were no longer going to be working on the Star Wars trilogy project that Lucasfilm had awarded them in February of last year. Then, this morning (October 29), we got the news that the "Game of Thrones" prequel starring Naomi Watts -- tentatively titled either "The Long Night" or "Bloodmoon", depending on who you asked -- which shot a pilot earlier this summer, was getting the axe from HBO. Those 2 pieces of info were plenty for fans to chew on, but then, moments ago, HBO dropped another bombshell -- the Dance of the Dragons prequel, which was rumored to be in the works last month, is officially a go!

Not much more info other than what we already reported on in September has been released. The series will be based on author George R.R. Martin's companion book to his A Song of Ice and Fire book series, called Fire & Blood, and has been co-created by Martin himself and Ryan Condal, who is also writing the series. As co-showrunners, HBO has chosen Condal and Miguel Sapochnik, who made a name for himself directing some of the biggest battle episodes of "GoT" (and won an Emmy for his efforts). GRRM will also serve as an executive producer. With Benioff & Weiss having openly admitted this past Sunday at a film festival in Austin that they had no prior experience in television production and basically bluffed their way through a decade-long series (and we all saw how THAT turned out... cough cough), HBO seems to have learned their lesson by accumulating a formidible team to bring the epic Targaryen civil war know as The Dance of the Dragons to life. So... yay for that!

Fire & Blood actually spans a few centuries prior to the events of "Game of Thrones", starting with the Targaryen Conquest of Aegon I and his sister-wives, Visenya and Rhaenys, all the way through to the Dance of the Dragons, a devastating civil war between two factions of House Targaryen that occurred about 150 years before "GoT". While it has not yet confirmed exactly what parts of F&B will be adapted for "House Of The Dragon", there's like a 99% chance it will indeed be the Dance of the Dragons. There is another possibility, though, that this could be an anthology series with each series focusing on a different period of Targaryen history. Also, unlike "Bloodmoon", it seems this new show has gotten a full 10-episode series order as opposed to just a pilot order. Stay tuned as we learn more!

Targ stans, how we feelin'?!