Turns out George R.R. Martin may not have been getting your hopes up about additional “Game of Thrones” spinoffs after all.
Soon after HBO programming president Casey Bloys revealed during the Television Critics Association press tour Wednesday that production had wrapped on the untitled “GoT” prequel pilot starring Naomi Watts, he told TheWrap the pay-TV channel is still “possibly” considering ordering pilots for additional spinoff projects that are in development.
“I think we have one or two more scripts,” he told us. “But we’re gonna see what happens with this one.”
Bloys wouldn’t say if he meant the decision to order another pilot will be made after this one (which is now in editing) is or isn’t ordered to series, or after the potential show airs. Actually, he wouldn’t even tell us when he thinks a decision will be made on if the Watts-led prequel gets the green light for additional episodes.
“Nope, nope, nope. Nothing to share,” he said, adding, “That I’m not gonna tell ya,” when we asked when he expects to see a finished pilot.
He also said there is still no word on a title for the prequel, which Martin has previously referred to as “The Long Night.”
Ordered to pilot last year, the project from Martin and “Kingsman” screenwriter Jane Goldman is set thousands of years before the events of the original “Game of Thrones” series in the era known as the Age of Heroes.
Along with Watts, the pilot’s cast includes “Harry Potter” alum Miranda Richardson, Josh Whitehouse, Naomi Ackie (who will next appear in J.J. Abrams’ “Star Wars Episode IX”), Denise Gough (“Guerrilla,” “Angels in America”), Jamie Campbell Bower (“Twilight,” “Mortal Instruments”), Sheila Atim (“Harlots”), Ivanno Jeremiah (“Black Mirror”), Georgie Henley (“The Chronicles of Narnia”), Alex Sharp (“To the Bone”), Toby Regbo (“Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald”), Marquis Rodriguez, John Simm, Richard McCabe, John Heffernan and Dixie Egerickx.
According to HBO, the drama “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.”
Goldman wrote the pilot from a story she developed alongside Martin. She will serve as showrunner and will executive produce alongside Martin, James Farrell, Jim Danger Gray, Vince Gerardis, Sara Lee Hess and Daniel Zelman. S.J. Clarkson will direct the pilot and also executive produce. Chris Symes is co-executive producer.