After ‘Game Of Thrones’ ended, several ideas for prequels and spin-offs were developed. The go-ahead for the production of a pilot episode was ultimately given to a project with working titles such as “The long night“ and “Bloodmoon” were mentioned – and for a long time it looked like this would actually be the first ‘Game Of Thrones’ spin-off we would see. But then everything turned out differently: The pilot film was unconvincing and the season wasn’t even filmed. Instead, ‘House Of The Dragon’ was launched – with success, because season 2 is already in the starting blocks.
In “The Long Night” it would have gone much, much further back into Westeros’ past than it does in “House Of The Dragon”. Instead of the Targaryens, it would have been about the origins of the White Walkers – millennia before the plot of ‘Game Of Thrones’. Naomi Watts (“The Impossible”) played one of the lead roles in the pilot. And what she looked like can now be seen in photos that will likely be among the few we’ll ever see from “The Long Night.”
“The Long Night”: Casterlys & Starks
Nearly five years after “The Long Night” launched and then was canceled, Flora Moody has now published some photos from the shoot . Moody supervised the project as hair and makeup designer. In this role she was also responsible for Naomi Watts’ look.
Moody shared not only photos of an elaborately designed wig and Naomi Watts doing her hair and styling, but also some snapshots from the camera tests – which show Watts all in gold in front of a sort of wall relief showing a chariot and flames. . These scenes probably take place in Casterlystein Castle, because There were reports that a wedding would take place between Houses Casterly and Stark in ‘The Long Night’, among other things. So these two families would have been the focus. Naomi Watts would have played Casterly.
Budget of $30 million for the pilot episode
The production of the pilot episode “The Long Night” cost more than 30 million dollars, but the end product still ended up in the toxic cupboard. Apparently, the episode failed to convince HBO executives and did not match the quality of ‘Game Of Thrones’, so they decided not to continue with the production.
In addition to Watts, in front of the camera on “The Long Night” were Jamie Campbell Bower (“Stranger Things”), Toby Regbo (“The Last Kingdom”), Alex Sharp (“3 Body Problem”), Georgie Henley (“The Chronicles of Narnia), Naomi Ackie (“Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker”), Denise Gough (“Andor”), Miranda Richardson (“Good Omens”) and Josh Whitehouse (“Daisy Jones And The Six”).
When is season 2 of “House Of The Dragon” coming?
After ‘The Long Night’, the next ‘Game Of Thrones’ project to hit the screens was the Targaryen prequel ‘House Of The Dragon’. In this case, not just a pilot was shot, but an entire season – and the result became a hit for HBO. Season 2 of “House of the Dragon” is already underway, we expect it to start in early summer 2024. What happens next in the fantasy series about Rhaenyra (Emma D’Arcy), Alicent (Olivia Cooke) and Co. you can find here: