HBO cancelled Game of Thrones prequel after spending $30 million on the pilot

Game of Thrones prequel House of The Dragon is fast on track for release in 2022. It is a well-known fact it wasn’t the only series HBO was planning to develop back in 2019. There were a number of prequel series, of which House of The Dragon got the chance to move forward to production. Another prequel, rumored to have been named Blood Moon, or The Long Night, was scrapped. The fans were disheartened, and so was the cast. The show’s lead, Naomi Watts, was in tears. HBO had to suffer a heavy loss just to get through the pilot episode, costing them nearly $30 million!

“They had spent over $30 million on a Game of Thrones prequel pilot that was in production when I got there,” former WarnerMedia chairman Bob Greenblatt tells James Andrew Miller in the journalist’s new book about HBO, Tinderbox: HBO’s Ruthless Pursuit of New Frontiers.

“And when I saw a cut of [the pilot] a few months after I arrived, I said to [HBO head of content Casey Bloys], ‘This just doesn’t work and I don’t think it delivers on the promise of the original series.’ And he didn’t disagree, which actually was a relief.”

Blood Moon, or The Long Night, however you want to phrase it, was set to be well over one thousand years before the mother series. There is no Iron Throne. There are no dragons. Westeros is a very different place.

What other prequel shows do you think are currently in development at HBO? Talk to us in the comments below!

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