Here’s The First Look At Naomi Watts In The ‘Game Of Thrones’ Prequel ‘Bloodmoon’

Despite the vitriol caused by the final season of Game of Thrones, the prequel series — rumored to be titled Bloodmoon — is still very much on the way, and will likely break also sorts of viewership records of a series premiere on HBO.

Because the truth is, no matter the bad taste left in our mouths by David Benioff, D.B. Weiss, and the final six episodes of Game of Thrones, the Westeros universe that George R.R. Martin created is still, to put it bluntly, fucking awesome.

Plus — little glass half full for ya — hopefully HBO learned from the mistakes they made down the stretch of Game of Thrones and will be doing everything in their power to avoid repeating them. They obviously feel confident in the series, as production began essentially as soon as Game of Thrones came to a close.

And now, following the shoot’s recent completion, the first look at the series’ main character, portrayed by King Kong actress Naomi Watts, has been leaked online.

In the photo shared to Instagram by kiaruzz91_, Watts can be seen wearing in costume on the show’s set at the Grotta del Turco in the Italian town of Gaeta.

HBO has described Watts’ character as “a charismatic socialite hiding a dark secret.” In fact, some Thrones fans have speculated that Watts is portraying Nissa Nissa, who is the wife of ancient hero Azor Ahai, the mythical warrior who created the magical sword “Lightbringer”.

Additionally, it has been reported that the series is set “5,000 years” before the events of Game of Thrones.

“Westeros is a very different place,” George R.R. Martin told Entertainment Weekly. “There’s no King’s Landing. There’s no Iron Throne. There are no Targaryens — Valyria has hardly begun to rise yet with its dragons and the great empire that it built. We’re dealing with a different and older world and, hopefully, that will be part of the fun of the series.”

In addition to Watts, the rest of the cast is filled out by various relatively unknown actors and actresses such as Naomi Ackie, Denise Gough, Miranda Richardson, Josh Whitehouse, Alex Sharp, Jamie Campbell Bower, Sheila Atim, Ivanno Jeremiah, and Toby Regbo.

With production on Bloodmoon complete, fans can likely expect to see the series premiere on HBO sometime in 2020.