A Popular Night King Theory Makes Me Annoyed All Over Again About Game Of Thrones' Canceled $30M Spinoff

By James Hunt

Published Aug 18, 2024

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Warning: Contains SPOILERS for Fire & Blood, the book on which House of the Dragon is based.

Summary

The theory that Daemon Targaryen is the Night King has gained traction since House of the Dragon season 2's finale.
The speculation around Daemon being the Night King shows a desire for more answers about the White Walkers.
Bloodmoon could have provided those answers, but HBO canceled the spinoff after filming a pilot.

A theory about Game of Thrones' Night King and House of the Dragon's Daemon Targaryen being the same person has gained a lot of traction. It’s a fun, if wild, piece of speculation, as many of the most compelling theories are, but it also makes me more annoyed that HBO scrapped its plans for a spinoff about the Long Night.

There are various House of the Dragon season 2’s ending referencing them, and it makes the spinoff-that-never-was a lot more frustrating.

Daemon Targaryen Is The Night King - Theory Explained

Is He The Night King... Consort?

The theory that Daemon Targaryen is the Night King dates back to the beginning of House of the Dragon, though has gained more prominence since season 2. Unlike, say, R+L=J (the now-confirmed theory that Jon Snow is the son of Rhaegar Targaryen and Lyanna Stark), there’s not a huge amount of evidence, but there is enough to make it an interesting bit of tinfoil speculation. This includes

What happens to Daemon’s body after his supposed death is never confirmed, as it’s not found after he crashes into the God’s Eye lake following his fatal fight with Aemond.
Daemon (in season 1) and the Night King’s costumes are somewhat similar in style and design.
House Targaryen is linked to the White Walkers through the song of ice and fire prophecy.
Some people believed the Night King was a Targaryen because he survived dragonfire in Game of Thrones season 8, and Daenerys was also fireproof.
Daemon sees a vision of a White Walker in House of the Dragon’s season 2 finale, and it has Targaryen-esque hair.

When it comes to evidence, it’s more like wet cardboard than it is set concrete, but I do think there’s a level of enjoyment to these wilder theories. I can certainly see why the idea of the Night King being Daemon would catch on, because it’s explaining mysterious parts of both characters, each of whom is highly important to their respective show. Theorizing about the White Walkers was a core part of engaging with Game of Thrones that was lost when Arya Stark killed the Night King, so I get trying to fill that void as well.

The Night King was invented for Game of Thrones, and does not exist in George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire books.

Certainly, the imagery in Daemon’s vision feels like it wants us to connect the two in some way. That’s more likely to be about the Targaryens bringing about their own downfall than it is something so literal as Daemon somehow becoming the Night King, but again, it’s not hard to see why it’d add fuel to the more fun and outlandish theories. In isolation, that’s fine, but it does show flaws with the wider franchise.

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Daemon Being The Night King Theories Makes Bloodmoon's Cancelation Even Worse

The Prequel Could've Provided So Many Answers

The human who becomes the Night King in Game of Thrones, tied to a tree and facing one of the Children of the Forest-2

The theory of Daemon being the Night King tells me two things, besides the fact that people will theorize literally anything:

There’s nowhere near enough known information about the Night King and other White Walkers.
There’s a clear demand for that information, and despite the backlash to Game of Thrones season 8’s handling of the story (or perhaps because of how it did it), it remains a part of the lore audiences are invested in and want to engage with.

That makes it so frustrating that HBO had the Game of Thrones spinoff that could’ve provided all of that and so much more lined-up, in the form of Bloodmoon (its working title). Set in the Age of Heroes and then working up to the Long Night, it could’ve explained a lot about the White Walkers’ creation, their first defeat, what actually happened to them, and their motivations.

The Night King’s origin, and thus the origin of the White Walkers as a whole, was hardly touched upon in Game of Thrones. Bran Stark’s vision of the man who was turned into the Night King is an easy way of debunking the Daemon theory because, well, it’s clearly not him (and it was thousands of years before the Targaryens existed, as far as we know, never mind them coming to Westeros), but it’s a few seconds of insight into the villains that were the overarching threat for the entire show.

Given HBO reportedly spent around $30 million on Bloodmoon’s pilot, then it’s easy to assume it must’ve been a real disaster. Director S.J. Clarkson said the Game of Thrones spinoff pilot was “great,” while former chairman of WarnerMedia, Robert Greenblatt, stated it wasn’t canceled because it was "horrible" or there was something terribly wrong, but it lacked the "depth and richness” of the original show’s pilot.

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The few images of Bloodmoon that were revealed looked impressive, and it had a good cast - led by Naomi Watts - and a strong writing pedigree in Jane Goldman (Kick-Ass, X-Men: First Class). With all of that, I’d love to know what that pilot episode was really like, given just how much potential there was to the idea and, clearly, how it would remain a draw even now.

The Daemon/Night King theory really just shows how much more needs to be explained about the villains. And, yes, that’s a failing of Game of Thrones. But it’s also where, at the very least, the spinoff could’ve helped while telling its own story. And maybe the cancelation was the right decision - it’s very difficult to argue against it without seeing the pilot - but the ongoing speculation about the White Walkers just makes me more annoyed we didn’t get the prequel in some form.

Game Of Thrones Spinoffs*
Title	What It's About	Live-Action/Animated?	Status
A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms	Based on Martin's The Tales of Dunk & Egg novellas, following knight Ser Duncan the Tall and his squire, Egg.	Live-Action	Releasing 2025
House of the Dragon season 3	The third season of the Game of Thrones prequel. Season 4 is also confirmed, which will be the show's last.	Live-Action	Expected 2026
Aegon's Conquest	Aegon I Targaryen's conquest and unification of Westeros, alongside his sister-wives, Visenya and Rhaenys.	Live-Action	In development
10,000 Ships	Princess Nymeria leads her people, the Rhoynar, to Dorne after their home was invaded by Valyrians.	Live-Action	In development
The Golden Empire	A show set in Yi Ti, a nation in Essos that lies to the east of Qarth.	Animated	In development
Nine Voyages	The nine great voyages of Corlys Velaryon, set before House of the Dragon, who traveled around the known world accumulating wealth and treasures.	Animated	In development

*There are also two unknown animated shows and one more live-action show in development, as per George R.R. Martin's comments on Game of Thrones spinoffs.

Still, given winter seems to be perpetually coming (with even Daemon himself noting it), and multiple Game of Thrones spinoffs in the works (both animated and live-action), maybe one day it will happen. Until then, we can have fun with the theory Daemon is the Night King, even if it’s not true… because he’s obviously the Three-Eyed Raven instead!