It’s been a busy week for Game of Thrones-related developments. After yesterday’s shocking news that Game of Thrones showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss have exited their planned Star Wars trilogy, Deadline reports that HBO’s Game of Thrones prequel spin-off will not be moving forward.
Now, this begs the question: which spin-off do I mean exactly? HBO has had at least five different spin-offs with five writers in development but that number has whittled down as of late, starting with Bryan Cogman‘s departure from his spin-off earlier this year. Other writers commissioned with their own spin-offs were Max Borenstein, Jane Goldman, Brian Helgeland, and Carly Wray.
The spin-off in question is that of Goldman’s (X-Men, Kingsman), which was set to take place thousands of years in the past and focus on an undisclosed cast of characters. Not much about the series has been released other than the cast of actors set to star, but A Song of Ice and Fire author George R. R. Martin personally referred to it as The Long Night in his blog posts. Naomi Watts was cast as the series lead, along with Georgie Henley (The Chronicles of Narnia), Jamie Campbell Bower (Twilight, Sweeney Todd), and John Simm (Life on Mars, Doctor Who) among others as supporting characters.
Per Deadline, HBO has not commented on their decision to not move forward with the prequel. It’s also worth noting that Benioff and Weiss have absolutely nothing to do with these spin-offs in any way, shape, or form. So don’t let their Star Wars departure influence your opinion on the tentatively-called The Long Night not moving forward.
Speaking of, check back with The Beat tomorrow for a deep-dive into the showrunning pair’s work on the show and the issues that our very own Ruth Johnson had with them.
