With HBO’s Game of Thrones gearing up for its epic eighth and final season next year, we’ve known for a while now that several potential new Thrones-driven shows were being looked at by the powers-that-be. And now, we have confirmation on the first of those shows to be picked up by the network.

As announced by HBO themselves, a pilot order has been given to a Game of Thrones prequel that will be developed by Jane Goldman and George R.R. Martin. Goldman has some hugely impressive writing credits to her name – such as Stardust, Kick-Ass, X-Men: First Class, The Woman in Black, the Kingsman franchise, and The Limehouse Golem – while Martin, of course, is the brains behind the entire Game of Thrones boom that we’re currently in the midst of. The duo have developed the idea for this prequel series, and Goldman will be tasked with writing the show and serving as showrunner.

From what we’ve heard, this prequel will be set thousands of years before Thrones and will look to explore how the world fell from the golden age of heroes to hitting its ultimate rock bottom.

If you remember back, this is actually just one of five Game of Thrones spinoffs/prequels that HBO has in some sort of early development. The network signed deals with five writers and got each of them to work individually with George R.R. Martin to see what ideas they could come up with. In addition to Jane Goldman, the other writers involved in projects are Max Borenstein, Bryan Cogman, Brian Helgeland, and Cary Wray.

At this early stage, it looks the earliest we could realistically expect to see any this prequel pilot is 2020.

As ever, expect more on all of these potential new shows as they continue to develop.