Josh Whitehouse joins Naomi Watts as Game of Thrones prequel star
The HBO prequel will feature Watts as a socialite with a secret, with Whitehouse in a key role. Also, did George R.R. Martin just confirm the show's title?
- Co-author of two Gen X pop-culture encyclopedia for Penguin Books. Won "Headline Writer of the Year" award for 2017, 2014 and 2013 from the American Copy Editors Society. Won first place in headline writing from the 2013 Society for Features Journalism.
The day after news hit that Naomi Watts is heading to Westeros comes word that another British actor, Josh Whitehouse, will join her there.
Whitehouse, known for roles in the movie Northern Soul and the BBC series Poldark, will play a "key role" in an upcoming Game of Thrones prequel, HBO confirmed Wednesday, though it's unclear exactly what it will be. Anyone else think he looks like a young Jon Snow though?
"The truth is out," the actor tweeted Wednesday.
The truth is out https://t.co/iU8rRq7l73
— Joshua Whitehouse (@joshisatree) October 31, 2018
Watts, meanwhile, will play "a charismatic socialite hiding a dark secret" in the prequel, HBO confirmed on Tuesday. Watts recently played Queen Gertrude in the Hamlet-based film Ophelia, with Star Wars' Daisy Ridley playing Ophelia. Other past films include The Glass Castle, Mulholland Drive, King Kong and The Ring.
No other information was available about Watts' Westeros role, which does sound a little Cersei-esque. (Then again, does Game of Thrones culture include socialites? Is there a Westeros Junior League? Will we be seeing a Red Cotillion instead of a Red Wedding?)
"I could not be more excited," author George R.R. Martin said on his website. "Welcome to Westeros, Naomi."
While HBO still calls the show "untitled," on his site Martin went ahead and called it The Long Night, the title he has previously said he favored.
Casting is now underway for THE LONG NIGHT, the first of the GAME OF THRONES successor series to ordered to film. HBO has just announced the first cast member: NAOMI WATTS is coming on board as one of our stars. https://t.co/n0XkxsJG03 pic.twitter.com/uNF5mjPNte
— George RR Martin (@GRRMspeaking) October 31, 2018
"Jane Goldman scripted the Long Night pilot and will be running the show," Martin went on to say. "She and her team are busy in London right now, neck deep in casting, and I expect some more names will be announced soon."
A spokesperson for HBO said that despite Martin's post, the show remains officially untitled.
And those other Game of Thrones prequels? Like a certain Bastard of Winterfell, Martin says they're not dead.
"Meanwhile, there are still a couple of other possible prequels in active development," Martin writes. "I can't tell you the subject matter of those projects, no, sorry, wish I could. The readers among you might want to grab a copy of Fire & Blood when it is released on November 20, though."
That sure seems like a hint to us that one of the upcoming shows will be about the Targaryen family, since that complicated, dragon-loving bunch are the topic of Martin's Fire & Blood.
Game of Thrones, the massive HBO fantasy hit based on Martin's book series A Song of Ice and Fire, will end after its next season, which airs in 2019.
There's been talk about as many as five successor shows set in the Thrones universe, and taking place thousands of years before the current show. But a pilot has been ordered for only one, the show run by Jane Goldman, who co-wrote the Kingsman movies, among other works.
"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," HBO says in a statement describing the planned show. "And only one thing is for sure: from the horrifying secrets of Westeros'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."
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