The wait for the eighth and final season of Game Of Thrones may feel interminable, but even if there is a long gap between seasons, rest assured HBO isn’t planning to miss a beat afterward. After previously greenlighting Jane Goldman’s pitch for a Game Of Thrones prequel to pilot earlier this summer, the series has now found its lead in the twice Oscar nominated Australian actress, Naomi Watts.
Casting Watts in a currently unknown role, HBO announced Tuesday that the star of Mulholland Drive and Peter Jackson’s King Kong will lead a series set thousands of years before the events of Game Of Thrones, when Ned Stark rode south to become Hand of the King. Indeed, we previously learned that the series will be set during the Age of Heroes, and HBO has been kind enough to confirm some of our theories in their oh, so vague logline that the series will not only explore the origins of House Stark (which was a given) but also White Walkers, Westeros, and the far “East” (more of Essos and the lost Targaryen homeland of Valyria, mayhaps?):
“Only one thing is for sure: From the horrifying secrets of Westeros’ history to the true origin of the White Walkers, the mysteries of the East to the Starks of legend—it’s not the story we think we know.”
While we’ve previously speculated on what the Age of Heroes can mean, the emphasis on Watts as a major lead is an intriguing one. Given Watts’ golden hair, she might make for an interesting casting as a Targaryen of the past, back when the family was one of many great Valyrian homes that mastered dragons and the skies, as well as the hellfires of a pit that would one day claim their great city. Also there is a chance Bran the Builder (the first Stark of major lineage) could have taken too much credit from his wife. And one out there idea—and quite unlikely—is if they blur the timeline and make the Night’s Queen, the undead bride taken by a Lord Commander of the Night’s Watch (and perhaps a Stark himself). It was she and her husband who orchestrated all sorts of horrors in the Shadow Tower of the Watch.
We imagine though that this show will be set before those nightmares and perhaps Watts would want a role that would not err so close to simply pure evil. In any event, she is definitely a major addition on what is the first of five developing prequels to likely reach series.
It was revealed in 2017 that HBO was developing five potential pilots from different creative teams, although given Jane Goldman’s pedigree as the screenwriter of Stardust, Kick-Ass, and X-Men: First Class, we always liked the prospect of her series making the jump. “A Song of Ice and Fire” author, George R.R. Martin, had a hand in advising all the projects and has since revealed that one of the five potential prequels has been indefinitely shelved but there is a chance HBO could greenlight another of the three still in development.