The final season of Game Of Thrones' is set to debut¹ in the 'first half' of next year, according to Casey Bloys, HBO's programming president.

HBO节目部负责人凯西·布洛斯说，《权力的游戏》最终季将于明年上半年首播。

Speaking at the Television Critics Association summer event on Wednesday in Beverly Hills, California, he adeptly² avoided confirming any more about the highly-anticipated eighth season of the hit fantasy show.

周三，他出席在加州贝弗利山举行的电视评论家协会夏季活动时，巧妙避开了对这部备受期待的热门美剧第八季的更多透露。

But, speaking to Deadline, he said of the upcoming prequel, currently using the working title The Long Night, that: 'There are very strong female characters but it's an ensembles³, there is men and women.’

但他同《Deadline》网站谈到了即将上映的暂定名字为“长夜”的这部前传，“有非常强大的女性角色，但这是一个群戏，男人和女人都是如此。”

Discussing the show further, Bloys added: 'Jane [Goldman, the prequel's scriptwriter] is a very good writer, we don't want to limit her to writing female leads. There are a lot of very complicated leads in [the pilot].’

在进一步讨论这个节目时，布洛斯补充道：“简（高曼，前传编剧）是一位优秀的编剧，我们不想限制她写女主角。”在试写的剧本里有很多非常复杂的主角。”

Of writing the new series, he noted⁴ that Goldman 'did not go into that wanting to answer anything about Game of Thrones; it was the story that spoke⁵ to her.’

谈及撰写新系列，他指出高曼“并没有投入于回答《权力的游戏》的任何问题；是这个故事告诉了她答案。”

Bloys confirmed that the prequel will begin production in 2019, refuting claims that filming would begin in October of this year, as he said: 'When I say we're hoping to go into production in 2019, we have to find a director, we have to cast it.’

布洛斯证实，前传将于2019年开始制作，这驳斥了今年10月开始拍摄的说法，他说：“在我说我们希望在2019年投入制作的时候，我们必须找到导演，我们必须选好演员。”

HBO have previously⁶ described the spin-off as: 'Taking place thousands of years before the events of Game of Thrones, the series chronicles the world's descent from the golden Age of Heroes into its darkest hour.

HBO此前曾将这一衍生剧描述为：“发生在《权力的游戏》发生数千年之前，该系列记录了黄金的英雄纪元时代进入最黑暗时刻的过程。

'And only one thing is for sure: from the horrifying⁷ secrets of Westeros's 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.'

只有一件事是肯定的：从维斯特洛历史中恐怖的秘密，到异鬼的真正起源，从神秘的东方大陆到传奇的史塔克家族……这不是我们自以为知道的故事。”