‘Game Of Thrones’ Prequel Star Jamie Campbell Bower Didn’t Survive The Original Show’s Pilot

Game of Thrones is notorious for killing off characters left and right, a fact Jamie Campbell Bower understands all too well. Not only did the Twilight and Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald star have his character killed off in the first episode of the show, his whole performance ending up being replaced. Insider reports that Bower was cut from the Game of Thrones pilot after a conflict with the Starz series, Camelot, kept him from being available for reshoots.

Don’t feel too bad for the young actor, though. Being replaced may be the best thing that’s ever happened in his career. As the Inquisitr reports, Jamie Campbell Bower is now set to star in the new Game of Thrones spin-off series. He’ll join Naomi Watts and a growing cast of rising talents in telling a new tale set over 1,000 years before the events of the current series.

While survival is never a certain thing, we doubt Bower’s prequel character will suffer as quick of a fate as his Game of Thrones pilot character. He originally played Ser Waymar Royce, the ranger leading a group of Night’s Watch men beyond the Wall in the show’s opening scene. In the finished product that aired back in April, 2011, Ser Waymar got his head chopped off by white walkers just six minutes into the episode. That means Bower would have been the first person killed on screen in Game of Thrones history. Alas, that distinction now goes to Rob Ostler, freeing Bower up for more screen time in the spin-off.

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A Song Of Ice And Fire author George R.R. Martin even mentioned Bower’s unfortunate exit from the pilot in a blog post from 2010.

“Everyone loved Jamie Campbell Bower and his performance as Ser Waymar Royce,” Martin wrote. “But since our pilot wrapped, JCB has gone on to win one of the lead roles in the new Starz series Camelot – no one less than Arthur Pendragon himself.”

“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.”

George knows more than a little about not making it into the final cut of the pilot episode. As Winter Is Coming reported, his cameo as a Pentoshi merchant wearing a gigantic hat also didn’t survive the extensive reshoots that reportedly turned the first Game of Thrones episode from “a mess” into the launching pad for one of the most popular series in TV history.

Treasures of Northern Ireland: As we’ve noted in our recent Game of Thrones news roundup, Linda and I were away to Northern Ireland this past weekend on a trip sponsored by Tourism NI to see the Winterfell Festival at the beautiful Castle Ward estate… https://t.co/e8IApADoNx pic.twitter.com/QgVk7J1xbk

— Elio & Linda (@westerosorg) September 19, 2018

The eighth and final Game of Thrones season is set to return to HBO in April, 2019. No information has been given on a potential premiere date for the Game of Thrones prequel, which will have to make it through the pilot process before being green lit by HBO. That may seem like a foregone conclusion, but Inquisitr reports the network plans to develop up to five spin-off shows. Only one will survive past the pilot process, which feels like the most Game of Thrones thing ever.