Game of Thrones prequel cast member almost appeared on original show
By Corey Smith
HBO recently announced the principal cast members for its upcoming Game of Thrones prequel series, which is set thousands of years before the main show. And while most of the names probably didn’t ring a bell with people (apart from Naomi Watts), one of the actors has a history with the original series. This is the story of Jamie Campbell Bower, whose relationship with Game of Thrones has enough twists to do George R.R. Martin himself proud.
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Way back in 2010, Bower was cast and portrayed Ser Waymar Royce in the original Game of Thrones pilot. You may remember Royce as one of the unfortunate Night’s Watchmen brutally killed by White Walkers in the very first scene of the show.
But Bower didn’t show up on the final episode. Showrunners David Benioff and Dan Weiss reshot huge chunks of the original pilot after friends told them it sucked. That included shooting the opening scene, but by that time, Bower had landed the role of King Arthur in Starz’ Camelot, so the role of Waymar Royce went to Rob Ostlere:
At the time, George R.R. Martin made a prophetic comment about Bower on his Not a Blog:
"Unfortunately, Jamie’s shooting schedule with ‘Camelot’ conflicted with our own, so there was no way he could come back and reprise his performance as Ser Waymar. But we wish him luck with his new (much larger) role … and who knows, if ‘Game of Thrones’ should happen to have a longer run than ‘Camelot,’ maybe one day he can come back and play another (much larger) role for us."
Game of Thrones would go on to a much longer run than Camelot, which was cancelled after just one season. Still, you can hardly blame Bower for taking a lead role over playing a guy who died a couple minutes after being introduced, and now that he’s landing a spot on the prequel, it looks like everything worked out.
Game of Thrones season 8 will air sometime this April, while the untitled prequel pilot begins filming this spring in the Canary Islands.
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h/t Insider