As HBO’s hit series Game of Thrones was winding down a few years ago, the premium cable network put several spin-off shows into development, with only one moving forward to series.

House of the Dragon, based on George R.R. Martin’s companion book about the three-centuries reign of House Targaryen, will debut on HBO in 2022.

A new book entitled Tinderbox: HBO’s Ruthless Pursuit of New Frontiers by James Andrew Miller, revealed that the first spin-off, rumored to be entitled The Long Night, from writer Jane Goldman with stars Naomi Watts and Miranda Richardson, cost a whopping $30 million for just the pilot, before they decided not to move ahead.

Former WarnerMedia entertainment chair Bob Greenblatt was interviewed for the book, revealing that when he came on board, the pilot was already in production.

‘They had spent over $30 million on a Game of Thrones prequel pilot that was in production when I got there,” Greenblatt said in the book (via Insider).

‘And when I saw a cut of it in a few months after I arrived, I said to (HBO chief content officer) Casey (Bloys), ‘This just doesn’t work and I don’t think it delivers on the promise of the original series.’ And he didn’t disagree, which actually was a relief,’ Greeblatt added.

‘So we unfortunately decided to pull the plug on it. There was enormous pressure to get it right and I don’t think that would have worked,’ Greenblatt added.

The spin-off was one of five prequel shows announced back in 2017, with the others written by Max Borenstein, Carly Wray, Brian Helgeland and Game of Thrones writer-producer Bryan Cogman. 

Only Goldman’s show moved forward to the pilot phase, with the show rumored to be called The Long Night.

The show was rumored to have delved into the history of the White Walkers and the mysteries to the East, while centering on the Stark and Lannister houses.

The Long Night was also rumored to be set thousands of years before the events in the HBO series and the books it was based on by George R.R. Martin.

The cast also included Naomi Ackie, Jamie Campbell Bower, Georgie Henley, Richard McCabe, Toby Regbo and Marquis Rodriguez, to name a few. 

Fans were given quite the surprise in 2019 when HBO revealed Goldman’s show was not moving forward to series.

On that very same day, a previously-unannounced prequel based on Martin’s companion book House of the Dragon, which Greenblatt insisted was moving much farther along in development.

‘I’m the one who encouraged Casey to greenlight it to series. I said, “Let’s not risk $30 million on a pilot.” You can’t spend $30 million on a pilot and then not pick it up. So I said, “Let’s not make a pilot. Let’s get a great series that we feel good about, and just make it. Or not,”‘ Greenblatt said.

The executive added that HBO was doing so well that they were practically, ‘minting money,’ which lead to the excess spending, adding they had, ‘lost a lot of discipline’ and he thought their process needed to be ‘overhauled.

Aside from House of the Dragon, HBO also announced in July that there are three animated spin-offs in developments for its HBO Max streaming service.

Another spin-off was announced in May, written by Amanda Segel, following Princess Nymeria and her journey with the surviving Rhoynars from Essos to Dorne.

Author George R.R. Martin signed a new overall deal with HBO back in March. 

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