Winter may be coming, but it won’t be for one of HBO’s “Game of Thrones” spinoffs. HBO announced on the afternoon of Oct. 29 that one of the planned five spinoff series from its critically acclaimed “Game of Thrones” series will not be moving forward.
The series, which was supposed to take place 10,000 years before the events that took place in “Game of Thrones,” was pulled after executives from Home Box Office were disappointed with the screening of its pilot.
No official word has come from the network, but apparently after the pilot was viewed by executives this past summer, they were disappointed in it and sent the episode back to the editing room. But after months of edits, executives were still not impressed with the pilot and ultimately pulled its plug.
Per its official logline, “the series 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.”
The project, which was headlined by Naomi Watts, will unfortunately never see the light of day. According to multiple sources who were attached to the project, the pilot was “troubled” from its start. From personnel issues, creative differences and its extensive budget – this prequel series was just not meant to be.
But do not worry GoT fans! In the same day, just hours after this unnamed series was axed by HBO, the network announced a series order for the second prequel series titled, “House of the Dragon.”
Earning a 10-episode order from HBO, this spinoff will focus on House Targaryen, 300 years prior to the events in “Game of Thrones,” and the original Aegon Targaryen’s conquering of Westeros.
“The ‘Game of Thrones’ universe is so rich with stories,” Casey Bloys, HBO president of programming, said in a statement. “We look forward to exploring the origins of House Targaryen and the earlier days of Westeros…”
“A Song of Ice and Fire” series writer, George R. R. Martin, began to pen a companion book series to this upcoming television series, when “Fire & Blood” was released November 2018. Tracking the events of Aegon’s conquering of Westeros, the first of the planned two book series covers the initial 150 years of the Targaryen reign, while the second will go right up until Robert Baratheon’s usurping of the Mad King.
Though Martin is still yet to finish the final two books of his original series, he has been working on this and several other projects in the meantime. Martin will serve as an EP on this series and any other future series.
HBO is still yet to announce what the other three series are that are in the works, but hopefully all will come to fruition and the madness that fans crave will continue to live on in numerous ways.
Ken Downey Jr. is the Managing Editor for Time OFF and Packet Media, LLC. This is a part of his series of weekly columns focusing on arts and entertainment. He can be contacted at [email protected].