The “Game Of Thrones” Prequel Starring Naomi Watts Is No Longer Happening At HBO

The prequel was to be set in a time period thousands of years before the beloved original series.

The Game of Thrones prequel starring Naomi Watts isn’t moving forward at HBO, sources confirmed to Variety and Deadline.

Cast and crew members from the pilot episode of the prequel, announced in 2018, have reportedly been receiving emails saying HBO has officially passed.

Before Game of Thrones even ended, the prequel was one of many related projects HBO put into development. But according to Variety, those projects are also believed to have been abandoned.

HBO declined to confirm the reports.

The prequel, which also featured actors Josh Whitehouse, Denise Gough, Jamie Campbell Bower, Alex Sharp, Miranda Richardson, Marquis Rodriguez, and John Heffernan, was to be set in a time period thousands of years before the beloved original series. Jane Goldman was a co-creator alongside George R.R. Martin and was set to be the series showrunner. But sources told the Hollywood Reporter HBO wasn't happy with the pilot, and had asked for changes before deciding to kill it.

After Game of Thrones' final, controversial season in May, more than 1.7 million people signed a Change.org petition to remake Season 8 “with competent writers.” There was even a famous coffee cup slip-up that made it into an episode that aired in the last season, angering fans and sparking criticism about the creators' inattention to detail.

Sophie Turner, who played Sansa Stark on the series, addressed the petition and fan backlash in a New York Times interview after the finale aired.

“All of these petitions and things like that — I think it’s disrespectful to the crew, and the writers, and the filmmakers who have worked tirelessly over 10 years, and for 11 months shooting the last season,” Turner said. “Like 50-something night shoots. So many people worked so, so hard on it, and for people to just rubbish it because it’s not what they want to see is just disrespectful.”

HBO programming chief Casey Bloys also responded to the backlash in May, saying he didn’t think there was “any way that all fans would’ve been happy.”

“I think everybody had hopes for where the characters might go or should go, but Dan and David have had a plan for how they wanted the show to go for a long time, and they did it the way they thought fit as creators,” Bloys told Deadline. “I think they did a spectacular job. They landed a big plane, which was not easy. You are never going to keep everybody happy, but I don’t think that’s what they were trying to do.”

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