HBO has cancelled the Game Of Thrones prequel starring Naomi Watts after filming a pilot earlier this year.
The spin-off from Jane Goldman and George RR Martin was set thousands of years before the original fantasy series, which featured the likes of Emilia Clarke and Kit Harington.
Sources at The Hollywood Reporter claimed that Goldman emailed the cast to share the news that the project had been binned.
The scrapped project, named Bloodmoon, had been given the go-ahead last year and shooting for the first episode kicked off in Northern Ireland in June.
Naomi was at the helm of the new show, with the likes of John Simm, Miranda Richardson and Marquis Rodriguez also on the bill.
Speaking to Net-A-Porter’s PorterEdit back in August, Naomi addmited that she was terrified about the series.
‘I still have fears about [the show],’ she said.
‘I don’t really know what to prepare for. I didn’t start watching until I was approached about this job.
‘But my brother [photographer Ben Watts], who is heavily into it, told me “Under no circumstances are you going to turn this down”.’
The official synopsis for Bloodmoon read: ‘Taking place thousands of years before the events of Game Of Thrones, the series chronicles the world’s descent from the golden Age Of Heroes into its darkest hour.
‘And only one thing is for sure: from the horrifying secrets of Westero’s history to the true origin of the White Walkers, the mysteries of the East to the Starks of legend… it’s not the story we think we know.’
Although Bloodmoon is no more, it was confirmed last month that another spin-off has been given the green-light and will be based on Martin’s book Fire * Blood.
According to Deadline, the author and Colony co-creator Ryan Condal have written the series for HBO, which is set 300 years before the events of the original series and charts the beginning of the end for House Targaryen.
Bloodmoon’s binning comes just one day after it was announced that Game Of Thrones creators David Benioff and DB Weiss had dropped out of the Star Wars trilogy.
Metro.co.uk has contacted HBO for comment.
Game Of Thrones is available to stream on Sky, HBO and NOW TV.
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