Filmed but Never-Aired Game of Thrones Prequel Exists, Here's What We Know
Game of Thrones, controversies about its finale nonwithstanding, proved to be a tremendously popular show, so continuation of the franchise in some form was practically inevitable.
HBO eventually decided to make House of the Dragon, a prequel describing events of the Targaryen civil war, almost two centuries before the events of Game of Thrones. But they actually had plans for several GoT spin-offs, taking place in Westeros' past.
The project that probably advanced the farthest, before it got cancelled, never got an official title, and is referred by its production name, "Bloodmoon". However, George Martin, who was involved in it, said on his website that his personal vote for the title would be "The Long Night".
And as fans of his works can immediately guess from that name, this prequel show was supposed to take place in the very distant past of Westeros, thousands of years ago, and deal with the generation-long winter, named The Long Night by survivors, and the first attempt of the White Walkers/Others to exterminate all life.
Unsurprisingly, the project was going to be difficult thanks to its very concept, because the world was almost completely unrecognizable back then, thousands of years before any of noble families, which played pivotal roles in Game of Thrones, except for Starks, came to be, and even before the kingdoms and states, which spawned them, arose.
The project was supposed to be headed by Jane Goldman, a screenwriter known for working on films such as Kick-Ass, X-Men: First Class and Kingsman: The Secret Service, and in fact was based on her pitch, suggested before Game of Thrones was even concluded.
HBO greenlit production of a full pilot for it, promising things "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". There would be no dragons and Targaryens, no Lannisters also, but hey, at least Martin promised more direwolves.
However, the pilot, filmed in Northern Ireland, ended up a mess.
While turning a bad pilot into a good show is not unheard of, and Game of Thrones itself might be an example of such, allegedly the problems with the Bloodmoon pilot were so bad, and the pilot itself so expensive, costing $30 million to produce that after looking at it the bosses at HBO decided to just scrap the whole idea and proceed with House of the Dragon.
And now that pilot seems to be locked tight in HBO vaults, so we're not likely to judge its quality for ourselves any time soon.