Naomi Watts Is Watching ALL Of 'Game Of Thrones' Before She Stars In The Prequel

Winter is certainly coming for this actor, who has a whole lot of TV marathoning to do. Naomi Watts admitted she's catching up on Game of Thrones before starring in the highly anticipated (and very mysterious) show prequel. A week after it was announced that Watts would be starring in HBO's prequel The Long Night, the actor revealed she's super late hopping on the GoT train, but she's already getting started on her homework. Better late than never, right?

"I'm late coming to it, I have to say," the actor told Entertainment Tonight on Monday. "But that's how I am with lots of things in life." Though GoT is a wildly popular and practically inescapable, it's totally understandable that Watts would be late to the party given the overload of shows on the air these days. (And, you know, the fact that she's a Hollywood star herself).

Needless to say, she's hitting the books, so to speak. "I am binging it right now and studying. It's very exciting," she continued. "Beyond [excited]." On Oct. 30, it was reported that Watts was cast as the lead in the prequel, though her role is being kept under wraps. Her character is described as "a charismatic socialite hiding a dark secret" by HBO.

While Watts studies up on the epic TV show that's spanned over the last seven years, fans are theorizing about what The Long Night could be like. In true GoT fashion, so far, only few details have been revealed. According to HBO, the prequel will be helmed by Jane Goldman, who co-created and wrote the series with author George R. R. Martin (whose novel series A Song of Ice and Fire, of course, was the basis of GoT).

And sorry, fans, no Jon Snow cameos here. So far, audiences know that the prequel will take place thousands of years before GoT occurs. HBO teased the series as such:

"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. From the horrifying secrets of Westeros’s history to the true origin of the White Walkers, the mysteries of the East to the Starks of legend, only one thing is for sure: it’s not the story we think we know."

But what will the show, a departure from GoT yet still in the same universe, be like? As explained by Variety, Martin has reassured fans that new projects are prequels verses spin-offs, and that none will focus on Ser Duncan the Tall and Aegon the Unlikely, Dunk and Egg, or Robert’s Rebellion, as fan theories suggest.

In July, HBO’s President of Programming Casey Bloys gave a bit more insight about the feel of the GoT prequel. “[Jane Goldman] did not go into [it] wanting to answer anything about Game of Thrones. It was the story that spoke to her," he revealed to Deadline.

"It’s a very different setting, a very different time in Westeros. It will feel different but still Game of Thrones.” Thus, The Long Night will be a perfect opportunity for Watts and co. to nod to GoT while making this installment their own.