The good thing about time passing, with the end of prequel filming (well, the first Game of Thrones prequel spinoff, anyway!) is that after a while everyone chills out and starts to leak info again. And we love that here! Four more castings have popped up, giving us a little more info to tide us over for now. The new additions are….
Pictured above (clockwise):
- LEAH GAYER – Gayer is relatively new to the professional world, but has a long CV at RADA, a respected drama school in the UK. What’s most interesting about this casting is that according to the actress’ agency resume, she’s playing the role of “Caera” on Bloodmoon. The “ae” letter combo gives us Valyrian vibes, but George R.R. Martin said last year that the prequel would take place in the distant Westeros past, before the rise of Valyria, effectively taking them off the table. So the name may be a misleading choice or a placeholder.
- JASPER BRITTON – According to Britton’s agency resume, he’ll be playing the role of “House Master Cole” on Bloodmoon. That title is a rather vague one, house master. Is it possible that “master” is a misspelling of “maester”? In the speculation game, sure why not! Maesters could have existed in prequel time- it’s unclear, in the history of Westeros. Even the specific name is up for speculation- is “Cole” his first or last? There is a famous house in Westeros named “Cole.” The new show may have simply borrowed it.
- GEORGINA BEEDLE – Beedle’s agency resume lists her as appearing in the “Untitled Game of Thrones Prequel” with no role specified, unfortunately. But it’s always nice to add another name to the roster. Welcome to the cast!
- JACQUELINE BOATSWAIN – According to Boatswain’s agency resume, she has a part in the “Untitled Game of Thrones prequel”. Her role is not included but we can do a little speculating based on casting notices leaked last year. We received a notice regarding a part labeled “S2” describing a series regular role for a black woman, aged 45 to 60. Boatswain might be the winner here. She’s in the right age bracket, and she’s a very experienced actress with regular TV stints on Shameless, Wolfblood, Hollyoaks, Grange Hill, and more.
Thanks to our friends at RedanianIntelligence for passing tips our way! Follow them for info about The Witcher.
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Hodor!
(Still too soon?)
I’m so excited for this prequel.
It’s nice to get ANYthing… Man, have they been quiet about the whole thing. Maybe they want to let The Witcher drop to see how well that’s done and received before taking too many more (public) steps with the prequel. *shrug* That may sound silly, but if HBO wants these series to be big they probably can’t scale/cut them back too much from GoT. TW reportedly worked with a budget per episode equivalent to S6 of GoT.
Clob,
Am I wrong that HBO still has to greenlight the pilot before filming can begin on the rest of Season 1?
(Calling JB24! Calling JB24! What do you know about status of green lighting and further filming?)
Ten Bears,
Well the pilot already exists. So they have to finish post-production, go over it, show it to all the suits, and make a decision whether or not they want to make a full season. And they could always wind up making a new first episode as they did with Game of Thrones.
Clob,
Can somebody explain what made the Witchers such an interesting story, because somehow I’m not into the vibe. It feels to fantasy-like for me. I like fantasy when it’s like GoT about the characters. And that the magic is something “that not even the characters understand”. If you get what I mean. The big hero defeating bad monsters.
But I read that the budget of the Witchers is ca 10 million per episode. I read that the whole first season will be about the budget of season 6 of GoT.
https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-budget-of-Netflix-s-The-Witcher-Is-it-more-than-Game-of-Thrones
But what I read about the Witchers and that the show will probably be a hunt-the-monster-of-the-week kind of story. If that’s the case I won’t watch it. what do you expect?
Ten Bears,
I think they are still busy with everything that happen after shooting. Didn’t they say that they will do CGI, and everything till end of October if I remember correctly. I think we can expect a greenlit or a no-go around november december. So not to worry about not getting the prequel. I think Goldman is still busy for her polished version.
Sue the Fury,
Sue I have a question, I have tried to make an account for the forum, which I would like to use, but it seems I need to wait till my account get the verification from the moderators. And it seems many want an account but are stuck with that same problem. But I would like to ask for the verification of my account, it’s the same name and email as I use on the articles.
Sue the Fury,
Ah, thanks!
kevin1989,
I activated it manually for you, you should get an email now. Sorry about that!
No worries, I’m very happy with the moderators here. You all do a lot of great work in your free time with this site, it’s the only Game of Thrones site that I like. I appreciate it very much. (that much that I wanted to share things on the forum in the near future).
So we can then assume the prequel is officially green lit beyond the pilot now despite no formal announcement (unless I missed it). I wonder when they will start filming, potentially in the spring so we see it on screens next Autumn?
Sue –
On the same subject, I tried to send a message to the mods/admin for the forum but the messages won’t send. They just stay in the Outbox. Could somebody have a look into this, as it may be connected to the problems people are having with the forum generally? I already have a forum account, but it seems others have been trying to register too without success.
Thanks!
Can you activate me too
Geralt’s profession is a witcher and he does indeed hunt monsters for a living, but the story of the saga is much deeper than that. While you’ll see the occasional monster hunting in a few episodes, that is just the backdrop. The story of The Witcher deals with such themes as neutrality, destiny, racism, colonialism, family and much more. Yes, there’s magic and mages, but they are all very human. Just like Game of Thrones, you’ll rarely find those black-and-white characters. They exist, for sure, but most of them are very human. Even some of the “monsters” might prove to be more human than actual humans and some humans will show themselves as quite the monsters.
Here is a great article about the saga.
https://scroll.in/article/939583/the-witcher-books-coming-to-netflix-tell-their-stories-in-ways-seldom-seen-in-fantasy-fiction
I wish they didn’t make Bloodmoon. And that all important things to say sbou the long night had been added in season 7 and 8 with flashbacks on how to kill the Night king.
And personally I had preferred the story where the hero had to kill Nissa Nissa with the same sword he killed his Nissa Nissa as it presumably happened in the long night.
For me it’s like filming Roberts Rebellion, all important stuff should be added with flashbacks in the main story. That would make Bran’s existence to save the main story very important.
Chilli,
If Jane Goldman does her job well, the point of this show will be to tell the stories of these new characters. You can’t hook audience on ice monsters only.
Her job is to make us care what happens with these new cast of characters. That will be the story. Not the WW.
mau,
Yes, but I still missed a lot in resolving the main story. It all happened too quickly with no special skills from Bran. Still don’t know why he should have survived or why it was important that Jon was the son of Rhaegar Targaryen. I fear it was all omitted for the prequel, but it did more bad than good. I still am interested in prequels, but not the long night since that should have been resolved already.
Gravemaster,
Thank you, than I will wait once the first or maybe even the second season has dropped. And look how the fans of GoT perceived it. For me it’s important that the characters are the main thing a show focus on. But it seem to be the case here.
But why I’m also very inclined with not the monster of the week is because it only has 8 episodes. If it would have had 20 I wouldn’t mind half the series would be the monster of the week. But I want a great overall story where the characters had character building.
mau,
Naomi Watts is in it. That’s +100 points from the get-go.
I wonder, with all the black actors and actresses, are they shoehorning some diversity into Westeros or is one of the storylines going to be in Essos? I predicted the Summer Isles. What say ye?
Happy to hear this news but getting nervous that we still haven’t received word of a series order yet.
mau,
This. GoT really is 5% about the supernatural elements and 95% about the characters and struggle for power. It’s a low magic fantasy and that’s what I love about it.
LatrineDiggerBrian,
Why would you presume that black people have to be “shoehorned” into a story in order to belong? Especially one set in a Westeros 5000 years before the time in GoT.
Hey there LDB!
I wouldn’t get nervous yet.
At 7:31 pm, Sue advised:
“Well the pilot already exists. So they have to finish post-production, go over it, show it to all the suits, and make a decision whether or not they want to make a full season. And they could always wind up making a new first episode as they did with Game of Thrones.”
LatrineDiggerBrian,
Hey LDB!
If you want to get excited about the prequel and the marvelous leading lady you have to look forward to, here are some clips of Naomi Watts
as Ann Darrow in Peter Jackson’s “King Kong” (2005). I may have posted two of these three links a while back. If you haven’t watched them and never saw the movie, it might be worth your while. The third one is my favorite. (Ann Darrow and King Kong in NY), especially 3:23 to 4:19 (end). It’s amazing how she can interact with a giant CGI ape 🦍 and make him seem real.
The prequel scored big time when they landed a megawatt star – and brilliant actress – like Naomi Watts. The green light🚦should be just a formality.
_______
Ann Darrow & King Kong on Skull Island
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ghrraB8mTU
+
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EB10MaFTMa4
————
Ann Darrow & Kong in New York
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KgUwlwbGYtA
Highlights:
Naomi Watts looking luminous at 1:55 – 2:08
Playing on ice rink in NY’s Central Park
3:23 – 4:19 (end)
Sue the Fury,
I haven’t read The World of Ice and Fire or any of the accompanying books, but it seems like the Andals and First Men were mostly white settlers, judging by the racial makeup of the Westeros in general during the series. So if there were any black settlers that came along, they either left on their own terms, were pushed out or wiped out i.e. there’s no trace or mention of them years later. So it’s hard to see how they would fit into the world of Westeros (especially the North) in positions of authority without it being shoehorned in. Unless you have a bunch of characters like Areo Hotah who are solely there to serve the great white houses. Which is why I actually prefer them to focus on the Summer Isles or some land in Essos, otherwise it’s just black characters living in the shadow of white ones in Westeros, or if there is some great black house, we know it’s not going to survive (plus that feels a bit shoehorned in).
Ten Bears,
Right but the pilot finished filming a while ago, they’ve been in post production for a long while now, going on two months it seems. I would’ve thought there would’ve been a decision by now.
In the meantime if people are looking for an entertaining series, I recommend ‘The Last Kingdom’, currently up to 3 series all available on Netflix, with a fourth on the way. Based on the Saxon novels by Bernard Cornwell. Some similarities with GoT – no dragons, but a little witchcraft here and there. Top class writing and acting.
Grandmaester Flash,
I had that show on my list. It’s only off it (for a little while), because many characters in Last Kingdom are also in Vikings. Which I already watch. And for me it’s difficult to watch 2 shows that have the same historical figure in it. So I wait till Vikings is done.
Happy to see any leaked info!
WoW is the best website. I’ve lurked for years.
Ot: Vikings returns Dec5th
I also highly recommend The Last Kingdom. It’s a terrific adaptation of Bernard Cornwell’s books. I love his writing!
LatrineDiggerBrian,
Hey LDB!
My follow up reply to your initial comment has been stuck in Moderation since 12:39 am.
Ten Bears,
:-O did you tee off on me?
(Supplementing reply stuck in Moderation):
I wouldn’t know what kind of timetable there is from pilot filming > post production > presentation to suits, bean counters and other corporate weenies > rejection vs. green lighting.
On one hand it’s obviously fiscally responsible to check out the pilot episode of a new series before dumping in megabucks for an entire season.
On the other hand, especially for a “derivative” series like this prequel that’s got a built-in base audience-in-waiting, I’ve wondered about the economics of shooting one episode, shutting down production and dispersing …. and then waiting indefinitely to find out if the series will be picked up; and if so, getting the cast and crew back together again to resume filming the rest of the first season.
I have to assume leading lady Naomi Watts* has what I think they call a “pay or play” deal: she gets paid whether production proceeds or not. I suppose everyone else just has to sit tight, be on call, and be ready to scurry back to the set if and when the showrunners get the green light.
Does anyone know what the lag time was from presentation of GoT’s pilot to HBO until commencement of (the rest of) Season 1 filming?
As Sue noted above, the original GoT pilot bombed and had to be re-done. (In the interim, Jennifer Ehle – Catelyn Stark in the original pilot – dropped out for “family” reasons I think, and was replaced by Michelle Fairley; and Tamzin Merchant – Daenerys in the pilot – apparently got the boot and was replaced by Emilia Clarke.)
I suppose that even if the prequel’s pilot gors over well with the corporate suits, they could still insist on a few re-shoots and little tweaks here and there.
I have no idea what kind of timetable there would be from greenlighting the prequel, to seeing S1e1 on our TV screens.
* Warning: I ❤️ Naomi Watts. ASNAWP-level fanboying ahead.
LatrineDiggerBrian,
Oh absolutely not! I did not tee off on you!
I simply tried to post links to three clips of Naomi Watts in Peter Jackson’s “King Kong.”
LatrineDiggerBrian,
Pending release of my prior reply from Moderation, lemme try to re-post just one link to Naomi Watts as Ann Darrow in “King Kong.”
Ann Darrow & Kong in New York
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KgUwlwbGYtA
Highlights:
Naomi Watts looking luminous at 1:55 – 2:08
Playing on ice rink in NY’s Central Park
3:23 – 4:19 (end)
Ten Bears,
You don’t have to sell me on Naomi, I’ve loved her in everything she’s been in. I just hope she’s not one and done like a Ned type character because that’s kind of predictable. Hopefully she’s in it for the long hall, but it’s hard to see her wanting to sign up for something that could run for 7-8 years and limit her film career.
kevin1989,
Personally, I prefer The Last Kingdom to Vikings.
Doesn’t it depend upon the setting Sue? If part of the story is set in Summer isles or Essos it make total sense to have a predominately black cast there. But it would be very strange if the North was racially diverse in contrast. For me the casting should be organic.
Jon Snowed,
We have no way of knowing what the north looked like 5000 years before “current” Westeros time. To limit people of color to the Summer Islands (especially when that isn’t even how it is in the books) is racist. People migrate, populations change, but most importantly, this is a work of fiction and creators can add diversity and actors of color wherever they like.
Sue the Fury,
C’mon, it’s not racist. What you’re proposing is wokeness for the sake of wokeness which is unnecessary. What scenario do you see a lot of diversity in the north? I can see the children of the forest being any ethnicity, but what else? Do you see like, black villages, asian villages, etc? It makes no sense since the north is based on Ireland and Scotland. Plus there is 0 diversity in the north on the show, so what happened? Do you want to see all the diverse groups get wiped out in the prequel? Either that or it’s just a bunch of token poc characters that are servants to the white people or secondary characters. The only thing I can really see is maybe a family or community made the trek to Westeros because they’re in search of a relic or something or as an emissary from another nation to one of the northern houses. Which we’ve seen before honestly (the mystical PoC from another land), far better and more interesting to focus on a black kingdom in Essos imo (like Wakanda in Black Panther).
But Sue isn’t this actually all in the History of Westeros book? I mean the origins with the first men., with descriptions of appearance etc. I know it’s not technically GRRMs book but it has his blessing.
I think I will watch the last kingdom once vikings is done. That’s probably around the end of 2020 or beginning of 2021.
The word “racist” gets thrown around like candy nowadays. There are plenty of examples where racism exists, but I think some people are a bit too hypersensitive about it to the point where having an open discussion is impossible and it minimizes examples of actual racism.
I personally don’t really care what color of skin the people of Westeros have in the prequel. However, considering the fact that there were pretty much no people of color in Westeros during seasons 1-8, there would need to be some kind of explanation as to why Westeros was full of people of color 5,000 years ago, but then became sparsely populated during the time of GoT seasons 1-8. WOUldn’t this need an explanation? Unless they just do their own thing and forgo continuity.
Mr Derp,
As a POC, I hate all these POC-discussions. I don’t won’t positive discrimination! Positive or negative discrimination, it’s all discrimination. I just want to be like all of you. And privately and professionally that works perfectly for me, I’ve got a good job and I have nice friends (in Belgium). But when I go online, It’s all about positive or negative discrimination, but never about the persons involved. I’m a person, not a colour.
Chilli,
I truly hope one day we can get to the point where everyone is judged on the merits of their character, not the color of their skin and people aren’t quite so squeamish and overly sensitive about the topic 🙂
Chilli,
I now realise I made a grammatical error: “I don’t want positive discrimination!”
My first language is Hindi/Bengali, but since I live in Belgium the language I know best is Dutch. And by the way, it’s nice living here in the city where I live now. Everyone is very much appreciated for their merits and that’s how it should be everywhere.
Mr Derp,
I mean it was 5,000 years before the events of ASOIAF/GOT. Think of our own world 5,000 years ago.
Jack Sharpe,
Which part of the world though? We have 7 continents while Westeros is simply one continent. Obviously, slavery and displacement of Native Americans help explain some of the changes in certain parts of our real world, but I’m talking about the world of Ice and Fire in-universe. They would have to come up with their own explanation, which may or may not reflect reality. I don’t know enough about the cannon of Ice and Fire to say what did or didn’t happen.
Either way, as I said I could care less about what color someone is in the show. If they do decide to populate Westeros with more POC (which I would expect) then I would also assume we’d get some kind of in-universe explanation as to why it was more diverse 5,000 years ago, but not so much during the events of GoT. There are practically no POC in WEsteros during the time of GoT. It would be logical to want an explanation. Whether we would get one or not is another matter.
I think the long night pilot is probably awful. Just a couple of days after it was viewed by hbo the other prequel about The Dance of the Dragons was announced.
Season 8 destroyed any interest about the long night and white walkers story.
The Dance of the Dragons is the better option for a prequel.
Juan,
I would have started the prequels with the destruction of Valyria. And after that indeed the Dance of Dragons. Every important thing about the long night should have been told by Bran in season 8, that way Bran would have had a purpose instead of just sitting there and suddenly becoming king without any real contributions.
Chilli,
I agree, I think they should do a show about old Valyria. Where we learn the beginning of all the families there including the Targaryens. And the slavery people in Valyria did and the experiments that happened there. The politics etc. 2 seasons of Valyria time. Season 3 could add the foundation of Braavos. Season 4 the quest to explore Westeros. And season 5 the ending where Aegon the conquorer is crowned king.
Something like that.
With regards to diversity in Westeros, there was an interview with GRRM where he suggested he would have had no objections if the production team had decided when GoT was in its casting stage that the Targaryens were POC, since he only described in the books their silver hair and purple eyes.
If indeed HBO commission the Dance of Dragons prequel i confidently predict that House Velaryon will be POC. And since Addam and Alyn Velaryon are major characters in that story, expect at least two POC actors in those roles.
This isn’t aimed at you Apollo but I really don’t like this “POC” tag for it distinguishes and segregates us all. By nature we are all persons of colour and the sooner we stop this segregation the better the real world becomes, treat everyone fairly and with respect, but I recognise I’m likely being too optimistic.
Jon Snowed,
I agree in the sense that tags and labels are often dangerous and used by people that are too lazy to understand that individuals are generally more complicated than any label allows, but I don’t think avoiding tags is realistic or necessary in this particular conversation.
The topic was representation for POC in GoT/Bloodmoon. How else should the topic be addressed that would be more palatable?
Yeah that’s fair Mr Derp, I wasn’t trying to pass judgement on anyone here, it’s just a gripe of mine that I’d had for anyone to refer to me or any of my friends in such a way. In terms of the story I don’t care who they cast so long as it’s organic to the story.
Agreed.