Game of Thrones has cast its first major role for the upcoming prequel. Actress Naomi Watts is joining the show, which will appear in HBO in the near future. While a release date for the Game of Thrones prequel still hasn’t been revealed, it’s time to get that rumor mill going again.
Entertainment Weekly broke the news about the inclusion of Naomi Watts. There are also some details about her character that have been released.
Watts will reportedly play, “a charismatic socialite hiding a dark secret.” It’s quite common for characters from Game of Thrones to have secrets, so that doesn’t exactly tell fans a lot about what to expect.
BREAKING: @GameOfThrones prequel casts Naomi Watts to star: https://t.co/EKGO8xfsqD #GameOfThrones
— Entertainment Weekly (@EW) October 30, 2018
Game of Thrones: The final season
The Game of Thrones Season 8 release date will take place during the first half of 2019. That leaves a lot of time within the HBO schedule to roll out the new episodes. It also keeps fans guessing, because there aren’t specifics to go along with it. It’s possible that HBO could aim for an April or May 2019 release date for the new episodes.
Naomi Watt’s acting credits before Game of Thrones
Recently, Naomi Watts was seen as Janey-E Jones on the Twin Peaks reboot. Before that, she had starring roles in the films King Kong, Mulholland Drive, The Ring, and Eastern Promises to name a few. She also popped up in sequels to the Divergent films, serving as an antagonist to the main characters.
Watts was nominated for two Oscars, in 2004 for Best Actress in a Leading Role for her work on 21 Grams. Then she was nominated again in 2013 for Lo Impossible.
Now, Watts takes on a role that will have her at the center of pop culture, especially since she has become the first publicly revealed member of the cast. It is expected that more members of the Game of Thrones prequel cast could be revealed this fall and winter.
Though the title of the upcoming Game of Thrones prequel has not been officially released, it looks like George R. R. Martin may have shared that bit with fans early. According to Esquire, Martin wrote on his personal website that the upcoming series will be called The Long Night. It’s not clear yet when the show will debut on HBO.