British director SJ Clarkson has been tapped to helm the pilot, while details of new characters are still kept tightly under wraps.

• Jan 9, 2019

AceShowbiz - Planned prequel TV series of "Game of Thrones" has finally rounded its full core cast. Announced on Tuesday, January 8, the cast is looking more diverse and female-focused than the main series. In addition, the show has set its director who will helm the show's pilot.

HBO reveals that Naomi Ackie, who is set to appear in J.J. Abrams' "Star Wars", Denise Gough ("Guerilla") and Jamie Campbell Bower ("Twilight", "The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones") will be joining previously-announced Naomi Watts and Josh Whitehous in the pilot. Also among the cast members are Sheila Atim ("Harlots"), Ivanno Jeremiah ("Black Mirror", "Humans"), Georgie Henley ("The Chronicles of Narnia"), Alex Sharp ("To the Bone") and Toby Regbo ("Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald").

Details of the characters are still kept tightly under wraps. The only detail that has been made out online is that Watts is playing a charismatic socialite who is hiding a dark secret.

Additionally, the premium cable network has tapped SJ Clarkson ("Marvel's Jessica Jones") to take on the directorial duty. It will be the British helmer's project besides her upcoming "Star Trek" movie.

Written by Jane Goldman and author George R.R. Martin, the prequel pilot is set 5,000 years before the events on "Game of Thrones". It will chronicle "the world's descent from the golden Age of Heroes into its darkest hour. And only one thing is for sure: From the horrifying secrets of Westeros' history to the true origin of the white walkers, the mysteries of the East, to the Starks of legend... it's not the story we think we know."

Martin previously teased that the show would not feature House Targaryen and their dragons. "Westeros is a very different place," Martin, who will also serve as executive producer and co-creator of the new pilot series, explained. "There's no King's Landing. There's no Iron Throne. There are no Targaryens -- Valyria has hardly begun to rise yet with its dragons and the great empire that it built. We're dealing with a different and older world and hopefully that will be part of the fun of the series."

The upcoming project is set to start its production in February.