We now know approximately when we're going to see the Game of Thrones prequel series on HBO, but it's going to be a while. Shortly after the first prequel that the network had in the works was given the axe, it was announced that a different prequel, House of the Dragon, had been given a straight-to-series order. Be that as it may, the show is going to take some time to put together and we're likely not going to see it until 2022.

The news comes from HBO's head of programming Casey Bloys. He was recently at the Television Critics Association winter press tour. Naturally, the subject of this new Game of Thrones show came up. Bloys was able to give his "Best guess" on when the series will make it to air. Here's what he had to say.

"They are in the room breaking story right now. My guess is we'll see it on the air in '22."

House of the Dragon was co-created by George R.R. Martin and Ryan Condal. It is based on Fire & Blood and set 300 years before the events of the main show and is set to tell the story of House Targaryen. No cast has been announced at this time, but it sounds like they're in the relatively early stages of the process.

The previous prequel, which was set to star Naomi Watts, was a very different situation. HBO started by ordering a pilot for that show before committing to a full series. Ultimately, they opted not to move forward with Jane Goldman's take on Westeros. Speaking further, Casey Bloys talked about the differences between the two projects and why House of the Dragon has something of an advantage.

"Pilots, sometimes they come together, sometimes they don't. And I would say that was very much the case here. There's nothing I would point to and say 'Oh, this was the problem.' That [prequel] was 8,000 years before the current show, so it required a lot more invention. One of the benefits of 'House of the Dragon' is there was a text from George and there was a little bit more of a roadmap. [Goldman's prequel] did have more challenges in terms of establishing a world, but I think she handled that beautifully... there wasn't one glaring thing."

Game of Thrones concluded its run last year with a very divisive final season. Creators David Benioff and D.B. Weiss ended up getting ahead of George R.R. Martin's books and that forced them to come up with their own ending. Perhaps House of the Dragon can avoid the same pitfalls. At one point, HBO had five possible spin-offs in various stages of development. So we could be getting even more GoT in the future as well. We'll be sure to keep you posted as any further details on the project are made available. This news comes to us via Variety.