A prequel is a book, film, or show that tells what happened before a story you already know. The old story came first for the audience; the prequel was made later, but its events sit earlier in the world of the tale. Star Wars did this a lot, and now games and TV do it too: if a story sold well, someone often goes back and fills in the years before. It is a story word, a bit playful, not a school word. Though actually a prequel is not the same as a flashback inside the first story, and it is not an origin myth unless the new work really is one. People also stretch it: a “spiritual prequel” may only feel like the earlier chapter, with no shared plot. The pair in English is sequel (what comes after) and prequel (what comes before).