Stranger Things wasn’t the only major franchise recruiting Jamie Campbell Bower for a role.
Bower was one of the cast members of an HBO spin-off of Game of Thrones, which was also piloted with actress Naomi Watts. Thousands of years prior to the series, this idea appeared to be Thrones’ first true spin-off.
However, in 2019 the project was called off.
“Everything happens for a reason,” Bower said in an interview with EW. “I don’t think anything happens by chance. At the time of that spin-off not working out, of course, it’s sad. Of course, it is.”
“This was always there,” he further said about his Stranger Things character. “This was coming. I just didn’t know.”
Bower had an undisclosed role in the Game of Thrones prequel series with Watts, Naomi Ackie, Denise Gough, Miranda Richardson, Josh Whitehouse, Sheila Atim, Ivanno Jeremiah, Alex Sharp and Toby Regbo.
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Filmed in Northern Ireland in the summer of 2019, the pilot was set in Westeros during the Age of Heroes, suggesting that the show would likely take place alongside the events of The Long Night, the first battle against the White Walkers that led to the construction of the Wall to the North.
The official logline wrote, “The series chronicles the world’s descent from the golden Age of Heroes into its darkest hour. And only one thing for sure: from the horrifying secrets of Westeros’ history to the true origin of the white walkers, the mysteries of the East to the Starks of legend… it’s not the story we think we know.”
Bower had ties with Game of Thrones. Earlier, he had been recruited as Waymar Royce for the opening sequence of the original unreleased Thrones pilot.
But HBO settled to not push through with that offshoot series concept and is instead centering on House of Dragons, another prequel series that drops this August 21 and happens during the time of the Targaryen rule in Westeros.
Bower is enjoying his character in the Stranger Things series as Vecna, the new demo creature secretly connected to the origins of the terrors in Hawkins.
“I’ve done things or not done things [in this industry],” he states. “I was born, and now I’m here doing this. Everything I’ve done in my life led to this particular moment talking to you right now on this camera. That’s really interesting to consider.”
Stranger Things is currently streaming on Netflix.
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