Naomi Watts never had a chance to see her Game of Thrones prequel character come to life on screen… but a sneak peek at the production has shown a glimpse of how she would have appeared in the series.
In October 2019, just a few months after the final episode of Game of Thrones season eight was released by HBO, it was announced that a prequel set thousands of years prior had been axed.
The project, which was tentatively titled Bloodmoon, was set to star Naomi in an unknown role, in addition to Naomi Ackie, Sheila Atim, Jamie Campbell Bower and Josh Whitehouse.
It was also reported that Tom Canton, who stars as Filavandrel, the last King of the Elves in Netflix’s fantasy show The Witcher, had been cast.
Tom recently shared a picture of his former Bloodmoon co-star Naomi on set of the cancelled show, capturing the King Kong actor reading her lines.
In the blurry photograph, Naomi appears to be wearing a protective hair net over an intricate updo, dressed in a flowing, golden-hued gown and matching jewellery.
In a thread of tweets, Tom wrote: ‘An actor, namely, Naomi Watts, prepares…
‘Throwback to a special moment in my career filming with the inimitable Naomi Watts here in the stunning cave of natural beauty, known as “Grotto del Turco”, or “The Cave of The Turk”, in Gaeta, Italy, two years ago.’
The actor wrote that the location was situated ‘300 steps below a working monastery’ and is known for an incredible ‘legend’.
‘Legend has it that the mountain split and cracked in to in this stunning way at the very moment of Christ’s death,’ he said.
‘A travelling Turkish General cast doubt on the religious origins of this incredible monument of nature’s beauty… challenging God to turn the rock to liquid upon his touch if indeed Christ existed.
‘You can see in the last photo the handprint and five finger prints burned in the cave to this day.’
In the picture mentioned, a handprint can be seen in a rock above an inscription, which Tom said translates to read: ‘An incredulous man refused to believe what the tradition tells. Proof that is this rock, become liquid by the touch of his fingers.’
Tom wrote that he ‘loves’ the photograph of Naomi ‘silently reading her script preparing to shoot our scene, right at the bottom of this most special place as the sea meets the earth, as the crew buzzed around her finalising our checks.’
A picture of Naomi wearing what appears to be the same dress circulated on social media in July 2019.
Following the news of Bloodmoon’s cancellation, Naomi expressed her disappointment over the production no longer going ahead, telling News.com.au: ‘I feel your pain. I equally got into it.’
Having not been into Game of Thrones before being cast in the role, the Diana actor said that she watched it all in one go to prepare.
‘I wasn’t a huge fan and hadn’t seen the shows until I was hired and then completely binged everything within the space of a couple of months and it’s just wonderful,’ she recalled.
It was speculated by fans that Naomi could have been cast as Nissa Nissa, the wife of Azor Ahai, a legendary figure known as the Lord of Light who, according to legend, used a sword called Lightbringer to defeat the White Walkers.
Game of Thrones prequel House of the Dragon, which is set 300 years before the events of the original series and is focused on the Targaryen family, is currently in production.
Game of Thrones is available to watch on Sky and to rent or purchase from Amazon Prime Video.
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