George R.R. Martin teases how the Game of Thrones prequel series clicks with the original

With the main Game of Thrones series now over, fans of Westeros are anxiously awaiting details on what will come next in the story. We’ve known that a prequel was on the way for a little over a year now, and that it would be about the Long Night, but not much other than that. Thankfully, the series original author, George R.R. Martin was able to shed a little more light on the series during a recent Entertainment Weekly interview, where he let fans know that the series will probably be more familiar than they might expect.

The prequel series, which is currently in production, will be set around 5,000 years before the events of Game of Thrones begin, taking place around a time known as the Age of Heroes. The events are expected to lead up to and include the Long Night, a years long winter when the White Walkers — or The Others, as they’re called in Martin’s books — invaded Westeros.

While fans are undoubtedly excited to find out more about the world of Westeros and its history, there was some concern that by setting the series so far in the past, the world and its characters may be unrecognizable. But during the interview, Martin helped assure fans that while, the characters you love won’t be in the prequel, things in Westeros won’t be too unfamiliar.

The series will feature some of the more mythical creatures we’ve saw pop up from time to time in Game of Thrones, like direwolves and mammoths — though as many have pointed out, there probably won’t be dragons on the show. Martin also explains that The Others will also play a large role in the series, since it’s going to involve the Long Night. Martin even let fans know that familiar families would still have an important role to play. “The Starks will definitely be there,” Martin said during the EW interview.

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Perhaps the most interesting tidbit of information for the most hardcore Game of Thrones fans was an insight that Martin gave about the Lannisters, and their family seat of Casterly Rock. “It’s actually occupied by the Casterlys — for whom it’s still named after in the time of Game of Thrones,” Martin told EW.

While this is a fact we’ve known since the release of the first book, we don’t actually know much about the Casterlys. Most importantly, according to family legend, the Casterlys lost their castle to a man named Lann the Clever, who is said to have tricked the family out of their ancestral home sometime during the Age of Heroes, and taken the castle for his own family, the Lannisters.

It’s unclear if we’re going to see this story during this prequel series, but Martin mentioning the Casterly name means there’s hope that fans will finally get to see exactly how the Lannisters really acquired Casterly Rock.

The Thrones prequel series is already filming in northern Ireland, despite the fact that the series doesn’t even have an official name yet, or a date for the premiere. Martin has mentioned in the past that he would have called the series The Long Night, but during this interview he hints that The Longest Night is also a possible name, since season 8 already featured an episode called “The Long Night.”

The Entertainment Weekly interview also mentions that Martin is hard at work on The Winds of Winter, the sixth book in the Song of Ice and Fire series, but, of course, he doesn’t give any information on when we can expect that either.