The final season of “Game of Thrones” Season 8 is winding down — but the “Bloodmoon” is rising.
That’s the working title of HBO’s prequel series that started filming two weeks ago in Belfast, according to a new report from .
Sure, everyone is whining about Dany’s digitally edited coffee cup and leaked images of Jaime’s phantom hand right now — but something tells us when the time comes, diehard “GoT” fans will show up for the HBO currently has in the works.
Here’s what we know about the much-anticipated “Bloodmoon” series right now:
The title: George R.R. Martin that he thought the prequel should be titled “The Long Night,” but what does he know? He only authored the “A Song of Fire and Ice” book series the show is based upon.
The plot: Set more than 5,000 years before the events of the current series, the new series will follow the story of the “Children Of The Forest.”
On his blog, Martin might be based on the “Fire and Ice” companion book “Fire & Blood,” featuring dragons and “all the Targaryen kings from Aegon I (the Conquerer) to the regency of Aegon III (the Dragonbane), along with their wives, wars, siblings, children, friends, rivals, laws, travels, and sundry other matters.”
The air date: Sometime this summer, according to some reports. HBO still hasn’t announced an official air date for the premiere episode, which is directed S.J. Clarkson (“The Defenders” and next “Star Trek” film) from a script by Martin and Jane Goldman, the scribe behind “The Kingsman” series and two “X-Men” entries.
The cast: It’s packed with acclaimed international actors. Two-time Oscar nominee Naomi Watts is set to headline as “a charismatic socialite hiding a dark secret.” Fan theorists are speculating online that she will play Nissa, wife of Azor “Lord of Light” Ahai, a leading figure of the faith of R’hllor.
Watts will be joined by fellow double-Oscar nominee Miranda Richardson — a k a Rita Skeeter in the Harry Potter films. Marques Rodriguez, soon to be seen in Ava DurVernay’s Central Park Five limited series, “When They See Us,” on Netflix is also a series regular.
Brit thespians John Simm (“Doctor Who”), Richard McCabe (“Collateral”), John Heffernan (“The Crown”) and Dixie Egerickx (“Patrick Melrose”) round out the primary cast.
Beyond that, a batch of relative unknowns fills the call sheet: Naomi Ackie (“Star Wars: Episode IX”), Jamie Campbell Bower (“The Crimes of Grindelwald”), Denise Gough (“Guerrilla”), Alex Sharp (“To the Bone”), Toby Regbo (“Reign”), Georgie Henley (“The Chronicles of Narnia”), Ivanno Jeremiah (“Humans”) and Sheila Atim (“Harlots”).
The “Game of Thrones” series finale airs Sunday at 9 p.m