Game of Thrones: Photos Surface From HBO's Cancelled The Long Night Prequel

Photos show Naomi Watts in the canceled Game of Thrones spinoff with the working title Bloodmoon.

By Jamie Lovett

Fans can get a behind-the-scenes look at a Game of Thrones spinoff that didn't happen. Bloodmoon was one of the first four Game of Thrones spinoffs HBO developed and the first with a pilot put into production. The series would have told the story of The Long Night, that first clash between the White Walkers and the allied forces of the Children of the Forest and the First Men during Westeros' Age of Heroes. Naomi Watts had been cast and the pilot shot, but HBO ultimately passed on the series and chose to develop House of the Dragon instead. Fans can now get a sense of what Watts would have looked like in the series after hair and makeup designer Flora Moody shared some test work she did on the actress.

Specifics about the series and its cast of characters were never revealed, but rumors suggested that the pilot episode revolved around the marriage of a Stark to a member of House Casterly, the family that controlled Casterly Rock before the Lannisters. Watts most likely played the Casterly bride.

What did HBO cancel the Game of Thrones Long Night prequel?

There are several possible reasons that HBO decided to pass on Bloodmoon, which Game of Thrones author George R.R. Martin hoped would eventually be called The Long Night. One is that Martin has written very little about the Age of Heroes, that time of legend when the Long Night took place. That's somewhat intentional, as the details of this early age when legendary figures like Bran the Builder and Lann the Clever gave rise to the great houses that would dominate Weteros in years to come are obscured even within the books of the maesters of the Citadel. However, that poses a problem for those adapting the story for television since there's very little source material to adapt. By contrast, House of the Dragon draws on Fire & Blood, Martin's book chronicling the history of House Targaryen.

Another possible problem is the dragons or the fact that there aren't any. The Age of Heroes is an era before Aegon's conquest of the Seven Kingdoms, and Old Valyria hasn't even begun to rise yet. Thus, there is no House Targaryen in the story of the Long Night and no dragons, which HBO may have seen as a problem since many people will now watch a Game of Thrones show expecting dragons to play a role. (HBO certainly seems to have swung in the far opposite direction after rejecting Bloomoon by greenlighting House of the Dragon, a series focused entirely on the Targaryens and the civil war called "The Dance with Dragons.")

But the simplest and perhaps most likely explanation is that the completed Bloomoon pilot didn't excite the executives who saw it. That's the story that then WarnerMedia chairman Richard Greenblatt told The Hollywood Reporter.

"It wasn't unwatchable or horrible or anything," Greenblatt said. "It was very well produced and looked extraordinary. But it didn't take me to the same place as the original series. It didn't have that depth and richness that the original series' pilot did."

We can only speculate, but that lack of depth Greenblatt mentions may be because the Age of Heroes predates King's Landing, meaning there's no Iron Throne for the families to squabble over, perhaps lessening the role of intrigue in the story. In a way, with the presence of the Children of the Forest and giants and the White Walkers being a more clear and present threat, Bloodmoon may have felt more like a traditional fantasy story that that distinct brand of low-magic, dark fantasy that Martin established in Game of Thrones.

Or maybe it's the lack of dragons. It could still definitely be the dragons. House of the Dragon Season 2 airs on HBO and streams on Max later in 2024. 

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