'Game Of Thrones' Prequel Cast Adds 'Harry Potter' Veteran Miranda Richardson

HBO's Game of Thrones prequel cast is getting a little dose of magic.

Harry Potter veteran Miranda Richardson, who played gossip columnist Rita Skeeter in two Potter films and one theme park attraction, is the latest to head to Westeros – but she's not the only Wizarding World alum who's crossed over between franchises.TVLine reports that English actress Miranda Richardson (The Crying Game, Sleepy Hollow, the TV miniseries Merlin) has been cast in the prequel to HBO's mega-hit fantasy series. Unfortunately, nobody knows anything about her character because this entire show is being kept under lock and key – if we're taking wild guesses, Richardson's blonde hair and blue eyes could make her an ancestor to today's Lannisters. But that's the exciting part about this series – we've read all of Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire books, and we have no clue what to expect here because this show is set about five thousand years before the events of those stories and doesn't include dragons or the Iron Throne. Sure, you can dig around for clues and hints (like we did here), but we're all essentially on equal playing field until we find out more.

Several actors have made the leap from Harry Potter over to the world of Westeros, including Jim Broadbent (Professor Horace Slughorn and the Archmaester), Natalia Tenna (Tonks and Osha), David Bradley (Argus Filch and Walder Frey), and Michelle Fairley (Hermione's mother and Catelyn Stark). In the new show, Richardson will join Naomi Watts, Josh Whitehouse, Naomi Ackie, Denise Gough, Jamie Campbell Bower, Sheila Atim, Ivanno Jeremiah, Georgie Henley, Alex Sharp, and Tony Regbo. The Defenders director S.J. Clarkson (who also has directing credits on shows like Succession, Jessica Jones, Dexter, and Orange is the New Black) is helming the pilot and is on board as an executive producer.

This still-untitled series will be overseen by showrunner Jane Goldman (Kick-Ass), who co-created this prequel with author George R.R. Martin. No characters from the original series will appear, and the official plot synopsis is as follows: the show "chronicles 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." We have a feeling the show will take place either leading up to or during The Long Night, a devastating winter that lasted an entire generation, but that last part of the description suggests that there may have been some unreliable narrators peppered throughout Martin's lore, potentially telling stories that may not have been accurate. Filming begins this summer, and we're excited to see how this unfolds.

Meanwhile, all eyes are on the return of the original Game of Thrones series, which will kick off its massively-anticipated final season on April 14, 2019.