Say It Ain’t Snow: HBO Cancels ‘Game of Thrones’ Prequel Starring Naomi Watts

Stop everything you’re doing, because we have major news regarding the Naomi Watts Game of Thrones prequel: It’s not happening. 

According to Deadline, while HBO has more GoT spinoffs in the pipeline, this particular prequel (written by Jane Goldman and starring Watts) is no longer part of the lineup. 

And while the company hasn’t confirmed anything just yet, Deadline reports that Goldman has been emailing the cast and crew of the project to tell them that the pilot is no longer moving forward. Ouch. 

If true, the news is pretty shocking. Over the summer at the TCA press tour, HBO programming head Casey Bloys confirmed that the pilot officially finished filming. (The prequel began filming earlier this year in Belfast, Ireland.)

However, it’s since been going through a fairly lengthy post-production (with rumors about issues during filming). 

Created by the Kingsman scribe and George R. R. Martin, the series takes place thousands of years before the wars and dragons of Emilia Clarke and Kit Harington’s GoT that wrapped up earlier this year. It illustrates the shift from the Age of Heroes to the Long Night and reveals the terrifying secrets of Westeros’s history.

But we’re not giving up hope just yet. The original HBO series also went through a rocky time during its early stages and still turned out all right (minus season eight). 

A second prequel project focusing on the Targaryen Civil War is still in the works. The project hasn’t officially received a pilot order, but with this news, an order seems likely.

We guess we'll have to wait even longer to fill that GoT-size void in our heart…