Game Of Thrones ' much-anticipated prequel House Of The Dragon has begun casting amid hopes it will still be able to launch in 2022.
The new HBO show is set 300 years before the original series, which concluded last year, and depicts the reign of the Targaryen's in the Seven Kingdoms.
It is based on George R R Martin's Fire & Blood novel, which he published in 2018.
According to reports, Ryan Condal and Miguel Sapochnik, who directed the iconic GOT episodes Battle Of The Bastards and The Winds Of Winter, are helping to direct House Of The Dragon.
Sapochnik will also direct the pilot and additional episodes, as HBO has signed on for a ten episode series, according to the Entertainment Weekly story.
It is still unclear which characters in Fire & Blood will be the most heavily featured in the TV show as the book spans more than 150 years of the fantasy monarchy.
But fans will be delighted to find out that a source told ET the "Dance of Dragons", the Targaryen's civil war that decimated Westeros, will be covered in the show.
House Of The Dragon replaced the original plan for the GOT prequel which was canned.
The show was supposed to star Naomi Watts and filmed a pilot but was scrapped last year before it was even given a title.
It was recently reported that George R R Martin admitted he’s making "steady progress" writing the Winds Of Winter sequel novel - the last of his epic Game Of Thrones masterpiece.
George told his fans that the coronavirus and lockdown has been a massive positive push for him to get cracking on the long-awaited book.
While his update was met with excitement from GOT fanatics, George urged them not to get too ahead of themselves.
The author insisted that he still has a lot of work to do on the book, so he is in no rush to get it published.
“This does not mean that the book will be finished tomorrow or published next week.
"It's going to be a huge book, and I still have a long way to go," he said.
