Thursday, March 28, 2024

HBO Cancels “Game of Thrones” Prequel with Naomi Watts One Day After Show’s Original Creators Leave “Star Wars”

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The much ballyhooed prequel to “Game of Thrones” at HBO isn’t happening. They made the pilot with Naomi Watts, among other, sets thousands of years in the fictional past of Westeros. But I guess it didn’t work, no liked it, and now it’s history.

I’m not surprised. This would have been costly, and the new owners of HBO aren’t taking chances. If the new show wasn’t obviously right, forget it.

There’s another spin off of “Thrones” being planned with George R.R. Martin involved. But who knows what shape that’s in, and Martin still owes us one more book he never finished. Everyone asks him about  it, and he kind of shrugs.

This new cancellation comes on the heels of “Thrones” producers DB Weiss and David Benioff getting out of their deal to make a “Star Wars” trilogy. It’s a coincidence, surely. But there are no coincidences. Studios are trying to cash in on brands known to the public. But it’s hard to catch lightning in a bottle a second time for anyone.

What might work is an actual “Thrones” spin off with characters everyone knows, an “AfterMASH,” so to speak. But Weiss and Benioff blew that when they killed Dany and sent Jon Snow into the woods. I guess we could have “Sansa Stark 2.0” with Tyrion Lannister running the general store. Or maybe breeding dragons. The problem with the cancelled pilot seems to be no dragons. And that’s a drag.

 

Roger Friedman
Roger Friedmanhttps://www.showbiz411.com
Roger Friedman began his Showbiz411 column in April 2009 after 10 years with Fox News, where he created the Fox411 column. His movie reviews are carried by Rotten Tomatoes, and he is a member of both the movie and TV branches of the Critics Choice Awards. His articles have appeared in dozens of publications over the years including New York Magazine, where he wrote the Intelligencer column in the mid 90s and covered the OJ Simpson trial, and Fox News (when it wasn't so crazy) where he covered Michael Jackson. He is also the writer and co-producer of "Only the Strong Survive," a selection of the Cannes, Sundance, and Telluride Film festivals, directed by DA Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus.
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