Game Of Thrones: What will the new prequel series be about?

A Game Of Thrones prequel series will happen — but which of these three juicy options will HBO pursue? We check out the possibilities ...

WITH only two seasons of Game Of Thrones remaining, everybody’s thoughts have turned to the next big thing.

HBO has already confirmed it wants to produce a prequel to Game Of Thrones from the rich history created by George RR Martin — but that’s the problem, there’s almost too much to choose from.

The three most likely stories are: Robert’s Rebellion, the story of how Ned Stark and Robert Baratheon overthrew the Mad King; The Longest Night — the story of the worst winter in memory, when the White Walkers first attacked and the Wall was built and Dunk And Egg, the story of Ser Duncan The Tall and King Aegon The Unlikely, which is partly detailed in Martin’s book A Knight Of The Seven Kingdoms.

But which to choose? We run the rule over the three candidates ...

ROBERT’S REBELLION

Robert’s Rebellion is surely the most logical next step for the juggernaut GoT franchise.

Sure, as one of my learned colleagues suggests, we already know how the story will end, but if you apply that logic George Lucas’s three Star Wars prequels would have never been made either… hmmm… come to think of it maybe that wouldn’t have been such a bad thing…

I didn’t hate the third one…

Anyway, if series producers David Benioff and D.B. Weiss are involved you know it will be good.

As season six came to a close earlier this year some of the juiciest details of this elaborate backstory were beginning to become clear through the visions of Bran Stark and it has been some of the most exciting viewing on the show so far.

In a reveal worthy of a TV soap cliffhanger on steroids Bran’s Tower of Joy visions revealed Jon Snow was not the bastard son of Ned Stark but in fact the offspring of Prince Rhaegar Targaryan who either abducted and raped Ned’s sister Lyanna or the pair ran away together and secretly married.

As Lyanna was betrothed to Robert, this is where the turmoil – in the mortal world at least – kicks off sparking Robert’s rebellion against the Mad King Aerys II Targaryen.

There’s so much good GoT fodder here – political intrigue, a civil war, grand battles, betrayal, murder and undoubtedly sex.

Thrown into the mix we also have an increasingly mentally unstable King Aerys who – as we now know - will become so crazed he will threaten to incinerate Kings Landing and all its inhabitants using wildfire rather than lose the Iron Throne to Robert. Does Bran Stark time travel to get inside his head and drive him insane as rumoured? If this prequel gets off the ground perhaps we will find out.

We will also finally get to explore the circumstances that drove Jamie Lannister to turn against the king he swore to protect and earning himself the unfortunate moniker “the King Slayer”.

And if for no other reason, this prequel would mean we could watch Sean Bean again as Ned Stark (in the later episodes at least). I’m sure deep down every GoT viewer still hides the emotional scars inflicted by the execution of noble Ned in season one on the orders of his royal twerpness Joffrey Baratheon.

Don’t get me wrong I love the White Walkers, they are the coolest looking bad guys I’ve seen in a long time - ice monsters with glowing blue eyes and 80s rockstar hair, how can you go wrong.

And their army of mindless zombie wights are a lot of fun too. But do I want to see another show about them in The Long Night?

Let’s be honest. Up until now the Night King and his supernatural army have been a sideshow to the far more evil, frightening and downright cruel mortal world of Westeros.

And it is the interactions between the show’s human characters that elevates GoT from just a good show, to a truly great one.

And as for Dunk and Egg? Well for a start it’s hard to get excited about a show called Dunk and Egg – it’s hardly a blockbuster title. They might have to work on that.

And it suffers from what I like to call “The Hobbit effect” – a fantastic story but not quite up with its epic big brother the Lord Of The Rings trilogy.

And at least a portion of the story requires a journey back to Dorne – widely acknowledged as the most underwhelming and hated story thread in the current series.

And let’s be honest here, Mr Lay only likes it because it involves a character called Duncan and Duncan the Tall no less.

But in all seriousness, if they made any or all of these prequels, I would watch every episode back-to-back until my eyes glazed over and so would millions of GoT fans around the world. It seems this franchise can do no wrong.

Alistair Adams-Smith is not a fan of zombies or wearing his underpants over his trousers but makes up for it by loving all things GoT, Star Wars, sci-fi and superhero.

THE LONG NIGHT

There are so many questions that need to be answered about the Long Night. But first I have to ask why we would want to see either Dunk and Egg or Robert’s Rebellion.

A generations-ago prequel seems like a nice idea. But Dunk and Egg? They sound like kid’s characters. Game of Thrones is not a children’s story and it would be crap if it was! It sounds suspiciously like Jar Jar Binks, an allegedly comedic character introduced in the Star Wars prequels and one of the most hated characters of all time. If you’re not a Star Wars fan, ask one how that worked for the franchise.

We already know what happened in Robert’s Rebellion, we don’t need to see it played out. If that came to the screen, we’d have a bunch of familiar characters being played by different people representing their decades younger selves. As much as I liked the Tower of Joy seen I was terribly distracted by the guy playing Young Ned, who was visually almost a caricature of Sean Bean, the one true Ned Stark.

However, the story of the Long Night… now there’s a big tale to be told. Hopefully by Old Nan, who once described to young Bran:

“ Kings froze to death in their castles, same as the shepherds in their huts; and women smothered their babies rather than see them starve... In that darkness the White Walkers came for the first time. They swept through cities and kingdoms, riding their dead horses, hunting with their packs of pale spiders big as hounds.”

The White Walkers, a failed experiment by the Children of the Forest, raised armies of the dead and tried to destroy the inhabitants Westeros. This would be spectacular to see (if we don’t see something similar in the final two series of Game of Thrones, that is!) How were they driven back North? And How did Bran the Builder construct a wall 700 feet across big and 300 miles long of stone and ice? It sounds impossible if you look at the technology they wouldn’t have had eight thousand years previously. Did they use magic or giants? They certainly didn’t use cranes and concrete trucks. What was westeros like 8000 years ago, long before the castles and before Bran the Builder founded House Stark? Throughout the books there have been so many references to the past when things were greater. I’d love to see the more magical Westeros of old.

Angela Connell is mother to two preschool-aged children, so she feels like a walking dead person most days. She is a fan of all things zombie and Game Of Thrones in book and TV form.

DUNK AND EGG

Robert’s Rebellion and The Longest Night have plenty to recommend them but also one massive flaw — we already know how they end!

The beauty of GoT has been we simply don’t know what is going to happen. In one stroke that would be destroyed with either of these prequels.

We’ve already seen Robert’s Rebellion end with Robert ending up as king and Cersei as his queen, while we know the Wall exists and the Walkers were turned back.

So that means we’re just going through the motions, waiting to see an ending that we know all about.

That’s why Dunk And Egg is the best choice. Obviously they won’t call it that, because that would be silly but it’s not about the title, but the story.

The first three tales of the pair have been published but Martin has rough drafts of another six, involving the adventures of this knight and his squire, who turns out to be a Targaryen prince.

There is intrigue, battles, back-stabbing and dragons — all the essential elements of a GoT hit.

And, because they are just drafts, nobody knows exactly what will happen. The producers can do whatever they want with them to make them dramatic and complex.

They travel from the north to Dorne and meet the parents of many of the protagonists of Game Of Thrones, adding that feeling of familiarity.

Plus there’s enough there for as many as three seasons.

No matter what you do with Robert’s Rebellion, we know Robert will be king, Jaime will stab the Mad King and Ned will end up Warden of the North.

Likewise the Longest Night ends up with the White Walkers defeated. Given we will have just seen this happen in Game Of Thrones, will there be a great appetite to see basically the same plot again?

Best of all, we will have a couple of heroes to actually cheer about.

Ser Duncan is an honourable knight and Aegon is one of the few Targaryens who wasn’t mad. he also wasn’t supposed to take the throne, so there will be another tussle for the Iron Throne within the Targaryen family, as well as a nasty rebellion to get our teeth into.

Let’s face it, my colleagues can talk all they like about the other two options but their arguments are like Prince Oberyn’s head after his duel with The Mountain ... squished flat and oozing strange liquid.

Although, let’s be realistic. GoT is such a money-making machine, they’ll probably make all of them ...

Duncan Lay is the author of nine fantasy books including Australian bestsellers Bridge Of Swords and The Wounded Guardian and a fan of GoT, The Walking Dead, all superheros and Star Wars.