Game of Thrones will return for its seventh and penultimate season – consisting of just seven episodes – before showrunners D.B. Weiss and David Benioff wrap things up with an eighth season of six episodes, but HBO is toying with ways to avoid having to say goodbye to Westeros.

According to Variety, at the Television Critics Association press tour on Saturday, HBO original programming president Casey Bloys revealed that while nothing is written in stone in terms of a potential ‘Thrones’ prequel or spinoff, the network is ‘exploring’ its options.

‘All I can say is that we’re exploring it. We don’t have any scripts, we’re not even close to saying, ‘Oh, let’s do this,’ Bloys said. ‘But it’s a big enough property that we would be foolish not to explore it. It’s a really rich world. We’d be foolish not to look at it,’ he added.

‘The only thing we’re working out is how many episodes they want to do,’ Bloys tells TV Line. ‘They’re still figuring it out because I think they’re trying to get a shape of the season. They always do what they think [will yield] the best version of the show. It’s all about how many they’re comfortable with. But I’ll always take more. If you’re afraid we’re not going to do an eighth season, I assure you we’re going to.’

Indeed, there is plenty of material for the network to work with. In addition to George R.R. Martin’s Song of Ice and Fire series, the Thrones author has also written several prequel novellas, which take place nearly a century before the events of Ice and Fire and follow the adventures of two characters named Dunk and Egg.

While nothing is certain, it sounds like HBO plans on taking their time in developing a new ‘Thrones’ -related project.

‘We’ll take some shots at it. I’m not going to do it just to do it. It has to feel very special. I would rather have no sequel and leave it as-is then have something we rushed out,’ Bloys told Entertainment Weekly, adding that tackling a prequel seems more likely than a spinoff.

‘A prequel feels like it has less pressure on it [than a spinoff],’ Bloys said. ‘Martin’s history of Westeros gives you areas in which to say to a writer, ‘If you were going to do this, then go flesh it out,’ and we’ll see what comes back. But I don’t feel any pressure that we have to have something.’

Of course, HBO will have plenty of time to figure things out should they decide to move forward with a prequel — Season 7 of ‘Thrones’ isn’t scheduled to air until summer 2017.

Game of Thrones season 8 episode-counts not set, HBO ‘exploring’ spinoff possibilities