In the post “Game of Thrones” era, HBO notoriously put seemingly dozens of shows into development, trying to capture lightning in a bottle again. One of them, starring Naomi Watts, even shot a pilot but was scrapped and not picked up. Writer’s rooms were put together, and screenwriters and directors tried to map out all kinds of ideas (we lost track, but circa 2017, there were about six of seven different shows in development). In the aftermath wake of that run of failed series (only “House Of The Dragon” came to fruition), a Jon Snow show titled “Snow” was put into development for Kit Harington’s fan-favorite ‘GOT’ character.
Recently, rumors surfaced that the show was kaput, and in a just-finished interview with Harington today for the new crime indie “Blood For Dust,” co-starring Scoot McNairy and Josh Lucas, the actor himself confirmed the show is dead.
“Right now, it’s not [moving forward], no,” Harington told The Playlist in an upcoming episode of our Discourse podcast. “And it’s one of the reasons I didn’t or haven’t really spoken about it is that it was in development. And we kind of wanted the space to develop it & see if it was worth doing.”
“HBO came to me a number of years back about whether I wanted to do it. And I sort of said, ‘Yeah, let’s let’s give it a go,’” he continued. “And then we all tried, and we couldn’t find something that we thought was worth doing. And the last thing we want to do is make something bad. We don’t want to do it unless it’s worth it.”
Harington held out a little bit of hope for the series, saying maybe it’s possible, but said that development is not moving forward right now.
“But it’s not to say it won’t happen at some point,” he explained. “There’s always the option to if it feels like we can land on the right idea, but at the moment, nothing’s being developed.”
Harington didn’t divulge too much otherwise but seemingly gave an inkling about the thematic idea the show would have explored: what happens to a soldier after a war is over.
“I don’t want to go into it too much in some ways, but I think that for me, there was the possibility that there was something left to say. That when the war ends, you’re still left with the soldier. There was something in that I thought was interesting.”
At the end of “Game Of Thrones,” Harington’s character Jon Snow cheated death. The character killed Daenerys Targaryen and was expected to be executed for his crimes. Instead, he was allowed to escape his destiny but was forced to live out his final days in Castle Black. However, in the series’ final moments, he abandoned the Castle to live beyond the Wall with the Free Folk/wilding people whom he had led and helped save.
The series was obviously meant to explore the asterisk of his fate and ask what would be next, but it sounds like it’s dead, at least for now, and likely the foreseeable future. One new “Game Of Thrones” series is moving forward, however, as “A Knight Of The Seven Kingdoms: The Hedge Knight” recently cast its two largely unknown leads.
“Blood For Dust” opens in limited release on April 19. More from this Discourse interview soon. – Additional reporting by Mike DeAngelo from The Discourse Podcast.