Filming may have wrapped on the pilot for the highly anticipated Game of Thrones prequel, but naturally, the cast still has to keep quiet until the series is both greenlit (slim chance of that not happening, if we’re being honest) and filming resumes on the rest of the episodes. Case in point: Naomi Watts, one of the prequel’s leads, deflecting like a boss on a recent appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.
“Can we talk about the Game of Thrones prequel?” Fallon says in the clip, as the audience applauds. “Are we not allowed to discuss anything?”
“No,” Watts says, shaking her head — and the Oscar-nominated actress immediately shuts down any further discussion by turning to The Roots, Fallon’s house band, and shouting “Tequila!” The band obliges, launching into The Champs’ 1958 hit song.
“That’s the way to get out of it,” Fallon says after the song. “We won’t talk about it but I am very excited about it and congrats.”
Speaking of staying tight-lipped, HBO president of programming Casey Bloys confirmed during the Television Critics Association press tour this week that the network is still considering “one or two more scripts” when it comes to additional Thrones spin-offs.
“We’re gonna see what happens with this one,” he said, referring to what is being called Blood Moon (as the network hasn’t confirmed this as the official title, we will continue to refer to it as a working or production title until we know for sure).
In addition, one of the prequel’s other leads, Miranda Richardson, spoke with Digital Spy recently and while she didn’t give away any plot details, she seemed enthusiastic about the “storytelling” aspect of the series and following in the footsteps of Thrones.
“I’ve loved the storytelling in that series, and the wish and the will is to continue that with a totally different set of elements and people,” she said. “The work has been phenomenal throughout and I’m thrilled to be a part of it.”
Naomi!
(Hodor?)
How much longer until it’s officially green light and they continue filming the first season? I assume we won’t see it on screen until mid next year realistically.
Jon Snowed,
I think it will take longer. Jane has to actually write the entire season. They can’t start shooting immediately.
I still think it won’t air bef
Prequels are coming.
I’d be astonished if she doesn’t have it all drafted in some detail. She’s been working on this for quite some time and I can’t believe all that time would have been spent on a single episode.
Grandmaester Flash,
Even if she did have them all drafted (as opposed to outlined, which I expect is what has happened so far), the network would have ‘notes’ based on the pilot, so certainly revisions and changes would be required to any existing drafts. In any case, she wouldn’t get paid to write episodes that haven’t been ordered yet.
In other news, David Benioff comes out against the WGA’s push to stop the agencies from extorting writers. He who was born to a Goldman Sachs executive and is currently in the running for a 200 million dollar deal from a major studio. DB Weiss chose the right side.
Miriam,
I agree they don’t have scripts for future episodes, but I’m guessing that HBO made all the writers have extensive outlines for the first season and future seasons. More so than usual if they’re smart since one of the hallmarks of GoT is huge, shocking twists built on seasons worth of character development. Plus in a huge sprawling story with a lot of characters, you have to know where you’re going, can’t just wing it. I’m sure they know or at least have an idea of how the series is going to end.
LatrineDiggerBrian,
Can somebody please explain what Brian is saying? I read into it. The problems the wga have with the agencies. But I read conflicted information. And it’s too much for me at the moment to understand the bigger picture.
I read something about that the agencies are good for not so famous writers that doesn’t have the network of people to make it somewhere. That means that the agencies can make sure that woman, people of color and LGBT have bigger chance to get a writing job. But if that’s true then benioff does the right thing by going against the wga? Because the agencies making sure those groups get a easier access to working as a writer?
Can somebody explain the whole story here please?
https://deadline.com/2019/07/david-benioff-d-b-weiss-narrowed-down-field-blockbuster-overall-deal-disney-fx-netflix-amazon-1202653949/
The amazing Benioff and Weiss are maybe helping the lord of the rings series to get off the ground. If that happens. Count me in on that show when it airs it first episode.
https://metro.co.uk/2019/07/27/game-of-thrones-star-nathalie-emmanuel-is-confused-by-finale-backlash-10471197/amp/
Amazing woman. I hope too see her in a galaxy far far away.
Most probably they already have the entire script done.
It’s not like they write the pilot episode with the outline for other episodes in case they get the green light.
For Witcher they wrote the entire season and then started to film the pilot. It’s a common practice. I can’t imagine them not having the script for the season waiting for green light to actually start writting it.
It’s obvious there will be some fixes and changes, but the work is done for sure. Script is already there, at HBO. Jane had plenty of time to finish and polish it. She also consulted it with Martin. 5 script writers were writing the scripts not pilots.
LatrineDiggerBrian,
This seems to be quite a complex matter with the union members split over future action. The union has such a diverse group with conflicting interests. D&D have lots of good company on the stance they have taken. Shonda Rhimes seems to have taken the same position and she was not born with a gold spoon in her mouth, talent/work got her where she is now.
Kevin1989,
The LOTR reports seems to be false according to other sources. D&D are talented but their track record is strongest in adaptation. The LOTR seems to have a fresh story rather than a rehash of the wonderful work we know already.
Mango,
The WGA is trying to stop an age old practice of agencies packaging their talent for shows and taking a cut of the profits. It’s a conflict of interest and is illegal. They’re running a racket essentially, holding the talent they control hostage until the studio gives them a cut of the profits. There’s far more big names on the other side of the issue, read what David Simon is saying on Twitter. This group who signed the letter are being selfish and weak as the WGA has made progress in the past weeks, having two moderate sized ATA agencies sign their code. You said D & D, but Weiss is fighting for the right side, it’s only Benioff.
Mango,
ok, than I know that. But it’s possible they help the writers to write the pilot of the episode.
As for where they good are. They are very good with writing a story for themselves. The best GoT episodes are the ones not in the books and written by themselves. Winds, BotB, Hardhome etc. They even wrote the best scene in season 1, that was not in the book, the scene between Cersei and Robert. They even rewrote Blackwater once George finished it and added that amazing Sandor/Bronn stand-off.
The problem is more that when they need to adapt without adaption material. They can’t decide like with season 1 till 5 what is important for the end and what could be skipped. They only had noted. Had they just decide to go their own way with their own ending they could have come up with something brilliant.
Let us agree that they should show solidarity and support their union. I think over 90% of the members voted to see this policy change. It is an old industry practice that no longer works as the industry structure has evolved and agents now have business interests that put them on both sides of the negotiations for writers. So it is now a scam.
I think many of the signatories are also on both sides of the dispute. They seem to be “writers” that have evolved careers other roles in the business. So they may have a different perspective or the agencies have lobbied them to get the union to take a different path. It is also union election time and the politics are crossing the policy change needed.
You may be right that is is only David. A number of persons have signed and the articles only have a subset of those names. The list is not the same in every article. You may be reading different articles from the articles I read. However, in one article, I saw a “Weiss” at the very end of the alphabetic list. One D was at the top and the name I thought was the other D was at the bottom.
You may be right that they could have done something brilliant. But they did not. They may not have had the discretion needed, so it may just be a damn shame that things could not have been better.
I have lots of sympathy for the unfortunate position they found themselves in when GRRM did not come up with the book. I also think that GRRM failure to find an ending indicates than an ending is not easy to get to given the vast world he built. So even with a “smaller world” D&D may have had to crash land.
They did do a great job with Cersi&Robert and also with Tywin and Arya. And in many other instances. They are talented, no doubt.
It does not change that their strong record of delivery is with adaptations. It does not mean they will not have big opportunities with their own original material in the future.
kevin1989,
And Stars Wars is certainly a big opportunity for them – They secured it before the crash landing was displayed but that does not matter. They have a chance to excel.
SW is a “defined world” but it will have lots of space for original stuff.
Jon Snowed,
I think it will probably take a month or two for editing. Then they will either reject it or give the go ahead, and/or maybe give the go ahead with some reshoots…
I think if we’re lucky they might be able to start filming again in the late fall, but even if not, I think a lot of it will still rely on early spring filming and then we can add at least 3 months for post production editing.
So the soonest I think we can see it is late fall/winter 2020, but more realistically is that it will take GOT’s Spring spot starting in 2021.
On a somewhat related note I see that the rest of the main cast to go along with Rosamund Pike in The Wheel of Time series was announced. It reminds me of seeing the new faces for GoT when they started and how they matched my imagined visual of characters from ASoIaF. In this case for TWoT I don’t think any of them are anywhere close to my imagination when I read the books.
https://variety.com/2019/tv/news/wheel-of-time-series-amazon-rand-althor-josha-stadowski-perrin-marcus-rutherford-1203302153/