HBO Announces Premiere Date For ‘Game of Thrones’ Prequel, 'House of the Dragon'

HBO will officially expand the Game of Thrones universe this summer.

House of the Dragon, the GoT prequel series, will debut on August 21, HBO announced Wednesday.

Dragon takes place 200 years before the events of GoT, focusing on the early stages of House Targaryen, the ancestors of Daenerys and Jon. So expect a lot of dragons, fire, sex, blood, and white wigs.

The series is based on George R. R. Martin’s book Fire & Blood, a Targaryen history book. It sounds like Dragon won't cover all of the events in the book, though.

Rather, HBO says the series will begin around the time of the Dance of the Dragons, a civil war between siblings Aegon II and Rhaenyra, both of whom say they have a claim to the Iron Throne following their father’s death.

Miguel Sapochnik will co-show-run the series with Ryan Condal. Sapochnik directed GoT‘s most famous episodes: “Hardhome,” “Battle of the Bastards,” “The Winds of Winter,” “The Long Night,” and “The Bells.”

The first season will consist of 10 episodes, with the following cast and characters:

Martin, for what it's worth, says the show is fantastic.

"All ten episodes. I have seen rough cuts of a few of them, and I’m loving them … the writing, the directing, the acting all look terrific,” Martin wrote on his blog.

Game of Thrones ended poorly. Some viewers are still not over the finale. However, no show has yet surpassed GoT in the hearts and minds of fans. GoT was an event every weekend, it felt like a football game -- it's all anyone talked about. Hopefully, House of the Dragon can recreate the popularity of dragons and people banging their brothers and sisters.

I'm in.