Well, the “Game of Thrones” prequel contest is over, and should it have been called “Game of Prequels.”
Earlier yesterday came new that a prequel starring Naomi Watts, set thousands of years before the Emmy winning series, had been scrapped. HBO filmed the pilot, then said forget it.
But that show wasn’t from series creator and novelist George R. R. Martin. So now that series, called “House of Dragons,” has been approved and will go straight to series.
This had nothing to do with Naomi Watts or even the quality of that first show. It’s just about politics, and the fact that Martin is involved in “House of Dragons,” and HBO is in business with him. It was all about who would sit on the throne of Prequels.
It’s pretty obvious, though, why one show worked and the other didn’t: dragons. “House” will tell the story of Dany Targaryen’s family 300 years before “Game of Thrones.” Even though two of the three dragons died at the end of “Thrones,” back in this story there will be dragons. Lots of them. In the Naomi Watts series, there were none. And people want to see dragons.
What will Westeros look like 300 years before the story we already know? Those poor people didn’t have electricity or indoor plumbing when we met them. Can you imagine the primitive version? Yikes. No dry cleaning for all those costumes! And incest? Hah!
