HBO is green-lighting a new "Game of Thrones" prequel after reportedly canceling another that starred Naomi Watts.
The cable channel said Tuesday that it's given a 10-episode order to "House of the Dragon," set 300 years before the original series that ended its eight-season run in May.
The prequel is based on George R.R. Martin's "Fire & Blood," HBO said. The new drama was co-created by Martin and Ryan Condal, whose credits include "Colony."
It will focus on House Targaryen, made famous in "Game of Thrones" by Emilia Clarke's Daenerys and her fearsome dragons.
"House of the Dragon" was announced by HBO programming president Casey Bloys during a presentation for HBO Max, the streaming service launching in May 2020 . A spinoff of HBO megahit "Game of Thrones" would be a key attraction in the increasingly crowded streaming marketplace.
HBO declined comment on reports Tuesday that it had dropped another "Game of Thrones" prequel set thousands of years before the original. A pilot episode starring Watts had been filmed in Northern Ireland.
The straight-to-series order for "House of the Dragon," whether a sign of faith in the project or pressure to get it into production, avoids letting devotees of the fantasy saga down once more.
Casting and an air date were not announced.
Carrie Coon Relishes Being Part Of An Ensemble–From “The Gilded Age” To “His Three Daughters”
It can be hard to catch Carrie Coon on her own.
She is far more likely to be found in the thick of an ensemble. That could be on TV, in "The Gilded Age," for which she was just Emmy nominated, or in the upcoming season of "The White Lotus," which she recently shot in Thailand. Or it could be in films, most relevantly, Azazel Jacobs' new drama, "His Three Daughters," in which Coon stars alongside Natasha Lyonne and Elizabeth Olsen as sisters caring for their dying father.
But on a recent, bright late-summer morning, Coon is sitting on a bench in the bucolic northeast Westchester town of Pound Ridge. A few years back, she and her husband, the playwright Tracy Letts, moved near here with their two young children, drawn by the long rows of stone walls and a particularly good BLT from a nearby cafe that Letts, after biting into, declared must be within 15 miles of where they lived.
In a few days, they would both fly to Los Angeles for the Emmys (Letts was nominated for his performance in "Winning Time" ). But Coon, 43, was then largely enmeshed in the day-to-day life of raising a family, along with their nightly movie viewings, which Letts pulls from his extensive DVD collection. The previous night's choice: "Once Around," with Holly Hunter and Richard Dreyfus.
Coon met Letts during her breakthrough performance in "Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolfe?" on Broadway in 2012. She played the heavy-drinking housewife Honey. It was the first role that Coon read and knew, viscerally, she had to play. Immediately after saying this, Coon sighs.
"It sounds like something some diva would say in a movie from the '50s," Coon says. "I just walked around in my apartment in my slip and I had pearls and a little brandy. I made a grocery list and I just did... Read More