George R. R. Martin’s Ned Stark ‘Game of Thrones’ Prequel Officially Arrives in 2027

Published Nov 11, 2026, 7:30 PM EST

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It's been seven years since Game of Thrones ended, but Westeros has hardly been sitting around waiting for winter to arrive. Between House of the Dragon and A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, George R. R. Martin's fantasy universe has continued exploring the generations of bloodshed, betrayal, and bad family decisions that eventually led to the original series, but there's one particularly important chapter of Westerosi history that fans have spent years hearing about without actually getting to witness. Until now.

Game of Thrones: The Mad King, a stage prequel featuring a young Ned Stark, is officially heading to London in 2027 following a sold-out world-premiere run at the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford-upon-Avon. Adapted by Duncan Macmillan and directed by Dominic Cooke, the play takes place roughly two decades before the events of the original Game of Thrones television series.

Its story centers on the legendary tournament at Harrenhal, where the actions of Rhaegar Targaryen, Robert Baratheon, Lyanna Stark, and the famously unstable behavior of King Aerys II Targaryen threaten to plunge the Seven Kingdoms into chaos. The second half of the play focuses on Robert's Rebellion as he attempts to rescue Lyanna and overthrow the Targaryen dynasty.

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War Council

Westeros/Quizzes/Your House

Collider QuizWhich Game of Thrones
House Are You?8 Questions · 5 Great HousesFive great houses. Five completely different answers to the same question: how do you hold power in a world that will take it from you the moment you stop paying attention? Eight questions will determine where your loyalties, and your nature, truly lie.The Five Houses

Stark

Lannister

Targaryen

Baratheon

Tyrell

Find Your House

Council 01 / 080% Sworn

Question 01HONOR

01Someone powerful is acting dishonorably and everyone knows it. What do you do?In Westeros, the answer to this question has ended more than one great house.

ACall it out, openly and on the record. If honor means anything, it has to mean something when it's costly.BUse it. Information about someone else's dishonor is leverage, and leverage is power.CAct decisively to correct it, with or without the approval of those around me.DChallenge them directly. Strength settles disputes more honestly than courtroom maneuvering.ENavigate carefully. Build alliances, apply quiet pressure, and create a situation where the right outcome becomes inevitable.

← BackPick one, then Next

Next Question

Council 02 / 0812% Sworn

Question 02STRENGTH

02What is the source of your power?Every house endures because of something. What is it for yours?

AThe loyalty of people who trust me, earned over generations, not bought with gold.BWealth, intelligence, and the willingness to use both without sentiment.CA legacy so fearsome and a vision so total that opposition becomes unthinkable.DPhysical strength, military force, and the respect that comes from being the kind of person nobody wants to cross.ECharm, connection, and the ability to make powerful people feel that my success is also theirs.

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Next Question

Council 03 / 0825% Sworn

Question 03LOYALTY

03Who do you truly fight for?Strip away the banners and the words. The honest answer tells you everything.

AMy family and my people, those who depend on me and have kept faith with me through everything.BMy family, the ones who share my name, even when they exhaust me, even when they disappoint me.CMy cause, a vision larger than any single person, including me.DMyself, and those few who've proven themselves worth standing beside.EMy house: its name, its future, the position I intend to leave it in when I'm gone.

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Council 04 / 0838% Sworn

Question 04RIVALS

04How do you deal with your rivals?A house's method reveals its character as clearly as its words ever could.

AHonestly. I face them directly, and I give quarter when it's warranted.BThoroughly. I don't leave loose ends, and I don't make the same rival twice.CDecisively. Fire answers questions that diplomacy only delays.DHead-on. I'd rather settle a dispute in the open than behind closed doors.EElegantly. I prefer to make former rivals into allies, or at least into people who owe me something.

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Next Question

Council 05 / 0850% Sworn

Question 05RULE

05What kind of ruler do you believe in?Westeros is full of answers to this question. Most of them end badly.

AA just one. Someone who serves the realm rather than using it, who leads by example rather than fear.BA capable one. Someone smart enough to navigate the game, ruthless enough to win it, and realistic about what winning costs.CA transformative one. Someone who doesn't just rule what exists but reshapes what's possible.DA strong one. Someone whose authority is beyond question because the alternative is obviously worse.EA wise one. Someone who understands that the realm is fed by more than armies, and that a full stomach keeps more peace than a show of force.

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Council 06 / 0862% Sworn

Question 06LOSS

06You suffer a devastating loss. How does your house respond?How a house handles defeat tells you more about it than how it handles victory.

AWe grieve, properly and together, and then we endure, because endurance is what we do.BWe adapt. We reassess. And we ensure that whoever caused this loss comes to regret it completely.CWe burn hotter. Setbacks don't soften us, they clarify what needs to happen next.DWe hit back. Grief and reckoning are the same motion in our house.EWe regroup quietly, rebuild our position, and return when we're ready, on our terms, not theirs.

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Council 07 / 0875% Sworn

Question 07WORDS

07Which of these truths about Westeros do you most believe?Every house has a philosophy. This is yours.

AThe lone wolf dies, but the pack survives. Nothing matters more than the people you protect.BA Lannister always pays their debts, in gold or in kind. Reputation is built on consistency.CI am of the dragon's line. Some destinies are written before the person who carries them is born.DOurs is the fury. When we move, we move completely, and we don't stop until it's done.EGrowing strong means knowing when to bloom and when to wait. Patience is its own kind of power.

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Council 08 / 0888% Sworn

Question 08THE THRONE

08The Iron Throne is within reach. What do you do?The answer reveals not just your ambition but your character.

AClaim it only if the realm needs me to, and rule in a way that makes it worth having.BEnsure someone who owes us sits in it. The power behind the throne is safer than the throne itself.CTake it. It was always meant to be mine. I feel that in my bones.DSeize it, with both hands, without hesitation. Opportunity in Westeros does not wait to be asked.EPosition my house to be indispensable to whoever sits there. Influence outlasts any single reign.

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Reveal My House

The Maester Has SpokenYour House Is

Your answers point to the great house whose words, values, and way of surviving in Westeros match your own. Bend the knee, or don't. That's very much up to you.

The NorthHouse Stark“Winter Is Coming”Seat of WinterfellYou took the long view before anyone asked you to.

Winter Is Coming, and you have always known it. You prepare not out of fear but out of duty, because the people who depend on you deserve someone who takes the long view.Why You Belong Here

• You lead with honor even when it costs you, because you understand that a reputation built on integrity is the only one worth having.
• Your loyalty to family and people runs deep, not as sentiment but as a code that doesn't bend when things get difficult.
• The North endures because Starks endure, not by being the cleverest players in the game, but by being the kind of people others are willing to follow into the cold.
• You are that kind of person. The pack survives. The lone wolf does not. You already know which one you are.

The Long ViewThe PackWinterfell

The WesterlandsHouse Lannister“Hear Me Roar”Seat of Casterly RockYou read the room before you walk into it.

You understand the game: its rules, its exceptions, and exactly when the rules become the exception. You play it without illusions and without apology.Why You Belong Here

• You are sharper than most people realize, and you have learned to use that gap to your advantage.
• A Lannister always pays their debts, and you always keep your word, because your word is an instrument of power, and instruments must be kept in working order.
• You love your family with a ferocity that sometimes blinds you, and you know it, and you do it anyway.
• The lion doesn't concern itself with the opinion of sheep. Neither, in the end, do you.

Plays The GamePays DebtsCasterly Rock

The Iron ThroneHouse Targaryen“Fire and Blood”Seat of DragonstoneYou were never going to settle for the world as handed to you.

You carry a sense of destiny that is difficult to explain and impossible to ignore, the feeling that you are not simply participating in the world but meant to reshape it.Why You Belong Here

• You are capable of extraordinary things, and you know it, and that knowledge is both your greatest strength and your most dangerous quality.
• The Targaryen words are not just words to you. They are a philosophy about what change requires and what it costs.
• The Targaryens at their best were transformative rulers who broke chains and defied the limits of what anyone thought possible.
• At your best, so are you. The dragon has three heads. You are one of them.

DestinyTransformativeDragonstone

The StormlandsHouse Baratheon“Ours Is the Fury”Seat of Storm's EndYou arrive in a room and the room knows it.

You are a force: direct, powerful, and difficult to ignore when you enter a room or a disagreement. You do not negotiate with challenges. You meet them.Why You Belong Here

• Ours is the fury, and yours is a kind of intensity that commands attention, respect, and occasionally caution from those who underestimate what's behind it.
• You value strength and straight dealing. You'd rather know where you stand than navigate a web of courtly whispers.
• The Baratheons built their house on the back of one of the greatest military victories in Westerosi history, and then struggled with what came after.
• The lesson of your house is that winning is not the end of the story. Governing is. You are learning that too.

DirectStraight DealingStorm's End

The ReachHouse Tyrell“Growing Strong”Seat of HighgardenPower arrives with flowers and good wine.

You understand that power does not always announce itself, that sometimes it arrives with flowers, good wine, and a smile that doesn't quite reach the eyes.Why You Belong Here

• Growing Strong is your house's motto, and you live it: patiently, strategically, always investing in the relationships and resources that will matter most when it counts.
• You are charming by choice and calculating by nature, a combination that makes you one of the most effective players in any room you enter.
• The Tyrells fed King's Landing and shaped its politics without ever sitting on the Iron Throne, and they were arguably more powerful for it.
• You know that the person who controls the food controls the kingdom. And you always know where the food is.

PatientCharmingHighgarden

Where Your Loyalty Lies

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Who's Involved in 'Game of Thrones: The Mad King'?

Macmillan is best known for his work on projects like People, Places and Things, Every Brilliant Thing, and 1984, and it's he who adapted Martin's world for the stage, while Cooke brings experience from productions including Follies, The Crucible, and Ma Rainey's Black Bottom. The show also features incredible puppetry by Nick Barnes and Finn Caldwell, whose other work includes the award-winning stage adaptation of Life of Pi.

The Stratford-upon-Avon cast featured Michael Shaeffer (The Salisbury Poisonings) as King Aerys II Targaryen, Noah Ritter as Prince Rhaegar Targaryen, Callum Woodhouse (All Creatures Great and Small) as Robert Baratheon, Michael Abubakar as Eddard Stark, Harmony Rose-Bremner as Lyanna Stark, Luke Brady (The Last Kingdom) as Brandon Stark, Maxim Ays as Jaime Lannister, Marty Breen as Catelyn Stark, Marcello Walton as Ser Jonothor Darry and Tywin Lannister, Alexander Newland as Rickard Stark, and Elizabeth Ayodele as Elia Martell.

Game of Thrones: The Mad King arrives in London's West End in 2027. The venue, performance dates, ticket details, and London cast have not yet been announced. Stay tuned to Collider for all the latest news and updates on the biggest and best movies and shows heading to your favorite streaming platforms soon.