Making a follow-up to one of the biggest fantasy shows ever has been a journey worthy of the characters in the show. When Game of Throne ended, it was obvious that the world would continue. One idea eventually rose to the top. A script was written, the show was cast, and an episode was filmed before the show was scrapped. We now know how much it costs.
The canceled pilot cost over $30 million, according to a new book by James Andrew Miller. You read that right. We did not add an extra zero. Thirty million-plus for the episode was trashed. Bob Greenblatt, the former chairman of WarnerMedia entertainment, says in the book that they spent over $30 million on a Game of Throne pilot. When I saw a cut of it a few months after I arrived, I told the chief content officer that it didn't work and that it didn't deliver on the promise of the original series. He did not disagree, which was a relief.
The show was written by Kick-Ass and Kingsman writer Jane Goldman and starred Naomi Watts, Harry Potter's Miranda Richardson, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker's Naomi Ackie, and The Chronicles of Narnia's Georgie Henley. It was set thousands and thousands of years before the events of the show and was supposed to show the transition from the prosperous Age of Heroes into the long night.
Greenblatt said that they decided to pull the plug on it. I don't think that would have worked because of the enormous pressure to get it right. Bloys did an interview with Deadline a few months after the plug was pulled. He said in early 2020 that sometimes things come together and sometimes they don't. It was a challenge because she set hers 8,000 years before the original show, so it required a lot more role creation. That is a big swing. House of Dragons has a text and a book, so that made it a little bit more of a road map for a series order.
Yes. House of the Dragon is a Game of thrones spinoff show that will premiere in 2022. According to the report, Greenblatt is the one who encouraged Casey to greenlight it to series. I told them not to risk $30 million on a pilot. You can't spend $30 million on a pilot and not pick it up. I said, "Let's not make a pilot." Let's make a great series that we feel good about. Or not.
