It was only yesterday that Naomi Watts was confirmed as cast for the upcoming Game of Thrones prequel, and in just a day there are more bombshell news already!
Deadline reports that British actor Josh Whitehouse will lead the cast alongside Watts in Jane Goldman’s spin-off, whose pilot is expected to begin filming in February. You may know Whitehouse from Poldark, and he’ll also appear in The Happy Worker, an upcoming film by director Duwayne Dunham and executive producer David Lynch.
Deadline added that HBO would not comment on which role he will be playing. Considering the spin-off is set thousands of years in the past, during the Long Night, it’s fair to say most names wouldn’t ring any bells anyway, but this time we didn’t even get a character description. Watts, in contrast, was said to play a “charismatic socialite hiding a dark secret.” Who do you think Whitehouse will be playing in this Long Night-set prequel? Or, more appropriately, what kind of character do you think he’ll be playing?
It’s fun to see this stuff get rolling. I’m wondering if we won’t, and somewhat assuming that we may not get any solid specifics on characters to include names unless or until the series is actually picked up after the pilot… ??
I’d hope that HBO is very confident with their initial selection for this (first?) series to follow GoT and the chances are low that they’d scrub it after seeing a pilot. One never knows though.
Bran the builder?
Judging by looks, I’m assuming a Stark.
Can’t really get into the prequel yet but glad to see JW cast. Watching him in Poldark I could have seen him in GOT as Rhaegar perhaps.
Yeah, this was my first thought. I don’t watch Poldark and I don’t think I’ve seen him in anything else, but the picture above somehow screams Stark to me.
the 13th Lord Commander of the Night’s Watch?
As long as I hear the Old Tongue in this show, I don’t care who plays who.
That guy looks like a child from the forest to me.
I liked what I saw of him in Poldark!
That face looks more Greyjoyish than Starkish to me. But if we’re going back millennia earlier than the era we know in Westeros, we need to go in with the assumption that the dominant houses will not necessarily be the ones that are familiar to us. I expect that we’ll meet a few ancestors, especially of families like the Starks who are descended from the First Men. But in general we need to be open to getting acquainted with a whole new cast of characters. There probably shouldn’t be any Targaryens at all, for instance. And no Valyrian steel or any other post-Conquest technology.
Never heard of this guy, but I am absolutely thrilled about Naomi Watts. Love her. Actually watching Funny Games as we speak. I couldn’t be any happier with Jane Goldman as the showrunner, to think they picked someone who’s written or co-written numerous movies that I’ve loved. Hopefully she gets back to the tone of the earlier seasons, raw and unfiltered, grey and dark characters, shocking deaths, no one’s safe. Unique character arcs. That same voice that set it apart from every other show in the history of television.
I don’t know him, but he looks very Game of Thrones-able.
Both him and the Naomi watts character are said to be hiding a secret!… is the plot then??
My first thought, too.
My first thought as well. Looks a little like Viserys–sharper chin, long narrow nose. I’m hoping we’ll spend time in Valyria…
It’s something… not much, but something.
https://ew.com/tv/2018/11/01/game-of-thrones-season-8-ew-cover/
New promotional image from Season 8: http://static0.srcdn.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Game-of-Thrones-Season-8-EW-cover.jpg
Never heard of him. I feel like he’ll be part of the lower classes and he wants something he has no business wanting. As for Naomi, she’s probably a young Melisandre. Seriously, she has a boyish vibe…not that she looks like a boy, but has a boyish energy, like peter pan or something. So those folks who say she’s posing as a boy in the show, Naomi could certainly accomplish that.
What do I know, I’m bored waiting for season 8 promo material.
If you start at 1200 and count backward 8,000 years, you wind up somewhere at the invention of the wheel and the beginning of agriculture; although, I’m no historian.
Anyway, this prequel is going to be primitive. I expect those castles to look rustic, indeed. I expect a single room, or something with everybody sleeping on pallets on the ground, and cooking and eating in the same space. There’ll be no fancy glassware or fabric. I expect people to be squatting in the woods, standing up and walking away without so much as cleaning their bums with a handful of leaves. I expect them to be crawling with lice. I expect the small folk to be wearing rags living in a hole in the ground. I’m thinking of that altar in the crypt that High Sparrow showed to Cersei before he took her into custody. I expect some creepy ass rituals in the middle of the night with torches and painted faces and shit.
raul,
Ask and you shall receive! That doesn’t look like the season 7 coat. And it’s got a fur hood! The two of them look strained in that photo; either that or they’re freezing!
Anon,
One would think they’d be very primitive with thoughts of passage of time in our world. Their world however seems to be sort of ‘stuck’ in time as technological advancement is concerned. I actually don’t know that it will or should feel all that different than during the timeline of ASoIaF. Remember that the Long Night occurred during the Age of Heroes. It was during that time when some of the Great Houses began building their castles, i.e. Winterfell, Casterly Rock. As we see/read during the time of ASoIaF their living conditions and every day life doesn’t appear like it would be any different than those living during the AoH. Peasants and farmers are still living in shacks, wealthier in stone castles and lodges. None of them have a source of power like electricity, no running water and most are dependent on wood fires for warmth. It may seem impossible but their world doesn’t appear to have changed much at all for thousands of years except for additional building.
He’s almost certainly Brandon the Builder and Founder of House Stark. But this may be set before he starts building anything. Perhaps Naomi Watts is his mother? Is the secret his parentage? Given the Starks’ unique warging ability that’s passed down through the family line — perhaps starting with this Brandon — his lineage might include a Child of the Forest. So he’s not fully human. That would be quite a secret.
Anon,
Dany definitely has a new attire up to gloves. Jon is still in the same cape; however, there are no more direwolfs.
And both of them look unhappy. Dany/EC is either cold or tired or on the brink of tears. Jon/KH is more solemn but also… well, I can’t find the right word, but this pcture looks nothing like a traditional celebrity photo. So, I wonder could it be an actuall stillshot from the footage? Or maybe they were pthotographed right after filming some heartbreaking scene while they were still in the role, so to speak?
I also wonder about the background: looks like rocks but not quite… Any ideas
Just saw him in Poldark Season 3. Not finished yet, so I just saw him in a few scenes, nothing more. Yeah, I must admit I’m watching Poldark, even if it looks like a british telenovela… 😀
I am slowly warming to the prequel given the lack of S8 news and the casting news coming out for this instead. Can’t say I’ve ever heard of this actor though so hard to speculate too much.
I think Naomi Watts will be playing Lann the Clever, her secret is…shes a woman!
Josh Whitehouse will be Bran the Builder and our other major characters will be….
Garth Greenhand, Durran, and the Grey King…so basically Storm’s End, Greyjoy, and a Highgarden guy…
Anon,
Interesting thought, but no. Melisandre’s only 401 years old, which isn’t old enough to be in this show, and her past is as a poor slave sold to the Red Temple to become a priestess, not as a socialite.