‘GOT’ Fans Will Learn More About The Lannisters In The Prequel Series

When Game of Thrones first taped its initial pilot back in 2010, the biggest problem it had was defining the Lannister siblings. To be fair, the family are a complicated bunch, with stern patriarch Tywin hard at playing the games of power, while his twin son and daughter, Jaime and Cersei, commit incest, and his younger son Tyrion drinks his life away. However, though the show never got into it, the Lannisters have always been an impenetrable family. Now it looks like Game of Thrones fans will learn more about the Lannisters in the upcoming prequel.

The as-yet-untitled Game of Thrones prequel series has begun filming the pilot under the working title of Bloodmoon. For those who haven't been following, this is not the beginning of filming the first season, it is at this stage just a pilot being filmed. (HBO did the same thing with Game of Thrones, and considering how badly that first pilot went, it's not surprising the premium cabler is doing the same thing here.)

Though this is only a pilot so far, that doesn't mean the show isn't going all out to impress. Besides filming in Northern Ireland, as did Game of Thrones before it, Bloodmoon is also going to shoot in Italy.

Photos from outside Titanic Studios show what looks from a long distance to be possible weirwood trees for the new world of Westeros. But what got fans excited is a picture over at Game of Thrones fansite Watchers On The Wall. One close-up shot suggests the giant structure in the left-hand image is the opening to a cave system.

Most fans of Game of Thrones will immediately think back to the world beyond the Wall when Bran and company traveled to see the Three-Eyed Raven. He lived deep within a cave system to keep himself safe from the Night King. But in this case, the cave has what looks to be a lion's head crest carved into it. It's not the Lannister lion though, raising the idea that these caves are the ones from Casterly Rock before the Lannisters took ownership of them. If so, that means fans will meet the Lannisters when they lived a far less lavish lifestyle.

After all, as The World of Ice & Fire tells it, those caves of gold didn't originally belong to the Lannisters, and neither to Casterly Rock. They belong to a completely different family, the Casterlys. (Funny how that works.) Their house was founded by Corlos Casterly, who was a hunter during the Age of Heroes. According to legend, when a lion threatened the local farmers, he hunted the beast down, slaying the father. However, he left the cubs alive, as they were innocent. This act of mercy pleased the Old Gods, who bestowed upon him the golden caves upon which he founded his house.

The Lannisters eventually swindled the Casterlys out of their castle and their caves. From the looks of it, they adopted the lion crest while they were at it. Will Bloodmoon dramatize this change in fortunes as part of the new series? Either way, meeting the Lannister before they were rich will undoubtedly put a new spin on the family.