New book reveals what HBO spent on canceled ‘Game of Thrones’ prequel pilot

Game of Thrones fell out of culture fast after 2019’s series finale, and HBO has been trying to return it since with mixed results.

While House of the Dragon is set to go ahead in 2022 and will take place 200 years before the events of its mother series, the network also attempted a project called The Long Night. This prequel would have detailed what it was like when the White Walkers from the original show invaded Westeros as opposed to when they were stopped like punks in the main broadcast. But, according to the new book Tinderbox: HBO’s Ruthless Pursuit of New Frontiers, it did not move forward, and the premium cable network with a poor streaming service sibling spent $30 million on the concept.

“When I saw a cut of it in a few months after I arrived, I said to Casey [Bloys, chief content officer at HBO], this just doesn’t work,” former WarnerMedia chairperson Bob Greenblatt said in the piece as reported by Insider. “I don’t think it delivers on the promise of the original series. He didn’t disagree, which actually was a relief.”

While terrible pilots do not necessarily make for a bad series (Game of Thrones had one, too), it sounds like fans of the television show, everyone waiting for George R. R. Martin to finish the books, and the network dodged a bullet here. Yes, we live in a world where there are more than 500 scripted television shows at any given time, and everyone is battling to win the streaming wars, but not everything needs to be made. I am glad they are starting with one work. Maybe more companies need to get back to this kind of thinking and then build off of what succeeds on its own instead of vomiting out any IP.

What do you think about what HBO spent on this spinoff to Game of Thrones? Is there a spinoff of the show you would like to see? What can you see happening before Martin finishes his books? Let us know in the comments.