Before House of the Dragon, HBO tried and failed to get another Game of Thrones spinoff going -- but even George R.R. Martin hasn't been allowed to see the scrapped pilot.
In 2018, after much anticipation, HBO finally landed on a Game of Thrones spinoff idea. Naomi Watts would eventually join the project, titled Bloodmoon, which was set to explore "the world's descent from the golden Age of Heroes into its darkest hour." Shifting from palace intrigue to a story of the early war against the White Walkers was a bold move, and for a time, HBO was excited about it. "Bloodmoon really stood out as different, with unique world-building," HBO's executive VP of drama Francesca Orsi told The Hollywood Reporter. "Tonally it felt very adult, sophisticated, and intelligent, and there was a thematic conversation at the center of it about disenfranchisement in the face of colonialism and religious extremism."
The Game of Thrones spinoff even shot a pilot, one estimated to have cost between $30 to $35 million. But unlike the original show and House of the Dragon, A Song of Ice and Fire writer George R.R. Martin hadn't developed much of the world in the books. "Martin had published only about eight lines of text about the time period of the show, leaving [writer Jane] Goldman little to build from," Orsi continued.
"Bloodmoon was a very difficult assignment," Martin said. “We're dealing with a much more primitive people. There were no dragons yet. A lot of the pilot revolved around a wedding of a Southern house to a Northern house and it got into the whole history of the White Walkers."
HBO's First Game Of Thrones Spinoff Didn't Work
In the end, the pilot was deemed unworthy of continuing the Game of Thrones legacy and was locked away. Even Martin has never seen the result. "It required a lot more invention; it was higher risk, higher reward," HBO chief content officer Casey Bloys said. "There wasn't anything glaringly wrong with it. Development and pilots are hard."
Robert Greenblatt, the chairman of HBO parent company WarnerMedia at the time, agreed, saying, "It wasn't unwatchable or horrible or anything. It was very well produced and looked extraordinary. But it didn't take me to the same place as the original series. It didn't have that depth and richness that the original series' pilot did."
Despite the setback, House of the Dragon will soon bring viewers back to Westeros. And HBO and Martin are also not holding back on throwing more ideas at the wall, including a rumored Jon Snow spinoff.
House of the Dragon premieres Aug. 21 on HBO.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter