“A “Game of Thrones” prequel is coming … but Naomi Watts isn’t. Late last year, HBO shocked “Game of Thrones” fans everywhere by canceling one of its much-hyped prequels to the series, this one starring none other than Naomi Watts. In an interview with News Corp Australia last month, the actor opened up about the surprising news, saying it’s a “deep shame.” “I’m sorry, I feel your pain,” she said to interviewer James Wigney, who lamented the cancellation. “I equally got into the series] after — you know, I wasn’t a huge fan. I hadn’t seen the shows until I was hired, actually, and so I just completely binged everything within the space of about a couple of months. And it was just wonderful. Yeah. A deep shame. It would’ve been great fun, but I’m not allowed to give anything away, I’m afraid to say.” Watt’s prequel, announced in 2018, would have been set thousands of years before HBO’s “Game of Thrones” and was supposed to show “the world’s descent from the golden Age of Heroes into its darkest hour,” according to the network. In layman’s terms, that means the Long Night and a ton of White Walkers. Unfortunately, Deadline reported in October 2019 that the prequel’s pilot went through extensive post-production after it wasn’t received well, and there were rumors of issues during filming. HBO President of Programming Casey Bloys later told Deadline that overall the project “did not quite gel.” Fret not, “Game of Thrones” fanatics. The prequel “House of the Dragon,” covering the history of the Targaryens, is still a go at HBO and set to be released sometime in 2022. As far as the other prequel, it’s just time to break out the “deep shame” bells.
