Westeros returns to our screens on August 22 with “The House of the Dragon”, a prequel to “Game of Thrones” focusing on the Targaryen dynasty. With it, HBO intends to breathe new life into its most successful series, both in terms of viewers and awards, and obviously in terms of profits. But resurrecting the George RR Martin universe after the poor reception of the series finale was a great challenge and the network knew they would probably only have one chance to win back the public’s faith.
According to the Hollywood Reporter, HBO didn’t want to put all their eggs in one basket, after all, any Poniente-related project would be expensive and hitting it again would be very difficult. They went through everything Martin had written about this universe and came up with 15 ideas that could lead to a “Game of Thrones” prequel.. Any proposal would be considered. They even thought of a series about the Seven Gods of Westeros turned into humans that is described as the closest thing to superheroes “Game of Thrones” could have, but was one of the first to fall into the trash. Of all these ideas they decided to develop five.
We know some of those five very well. One was the adaptation of the “Dunk and Egg” stories and it was a proposal by George RR Martin himself.. Another focused on the destruction of the Targaryen empire of Valyria, which was responsible for ‘Godzilla vs. Kong’ screenwriter Max Borenstein. Another centered on Queen Nymeria of Dorne and was developed by Brian Helgeland, winner of the Oscar for the screenplay for “LA Confidential.” Another would be about Aegon Targaryen’s conquest of Westeros, with Rand Ravich and Far Shariat (“Vita”) at the helm. And the fifth is what was known as ‘Bloodmoon’.
This is the one that came closest to seeing the light because it was the one for which the pilot episode was recorded. It was announced in 2018 and had selected showrunner (Jane Goldman) and part of the cast, led by Naomi Watts. He would focus on the Age of Heroes, when the great houses of Westeros would begin to rise, and on the Long Night. For HBO it seemed like a safe bet because it had a lot of “Game of Thrones” connections, but “He sounded different, with a unique world construction. In tone he was very adult, sophisticated and intelligent and focused on a thematic conversation about the deprivation of civil rights due to colonialism and religious extremism.”, according to Francesca Orsi, executive vice president of the network drama. It started with a disadvantage, which was that George RR Martin hadn’t written much about that time, so they had to fly free and the author expressed his concern about it. HBO spent between $ 30 and $ 35 million to record the pilot, but it failed the test and the entire series was canceled. Despite “there was nothing obvious that was wrong”, not even George RR Martin has seen it. Robert Greenblatt, head of WarnerMedia, points out the main problem: “It didn’t take me to the same place as the original series. It didn’t have the depth and richness that the original series pilot had.”.
The project that went on
But HBO didn’t give up and decided to give another chance to another idea that the novelist put on the table when he suggested ‘Dunk and Egg’: a series about the Targaryens which could be called “A Dance with Dragons”. For the writer it seemed the most logical option: “”Dance” had all the intrigues, the competition for the iron lathe, the murders, the duels, the big battles, 20 dragons … everything”. With the idea of recovering Martin’s faith after “Game of Thrones” ended, they even let him choose the showrunner, and he chose Ryan Condal (“Colony”). They managed to convince Miguel Sapochnik, director of some of the most emblematic chapters of the series, to return and develop the series together with Condal. Martin was delighted and the result was a five-year, million dollar deal with him to be actively involved in the development of everything to do with “Game of Thrones”. The prequel was finally titled “The House of the Dragon” and was largely based on “Fire and Blood”, a novel released in 2018. The series begins airing on HBO Max on August 22.
Source: E Cartelera
