AFTER lengthy negotiations, Naomi Watts has signed on to lead the ensemble cast of HBO’s “Game of Thrones” prequel pilot.

Created by writer Jane Goldman and author George R.R. Martin, the untitled prequel takes place thousands of years before the events of “Game of Thrones,” so none of the actors from the current show will appear on the prequel. The creative team behind the project is not giving away much about Watts’ character — except that she will play a charismatic socialite hiding a dark secret.

The story chronicles the world’s descent from the golden Age of Heroes into its darkest hour. An official logline from the network reads: “Only one thing is 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.”

“Game of Thrones” has a male lead, Jon Snow. Looking to differentiate itself from the mothership series and coming from a female writer, Goldman, it was a logical assumption that the prequel could have a female lead, something Watts’ high-profile casting seems to reaffirm.

“There are very strong female characters but it’s an ensemble, there are men and women,” said Casey Bloys, HBO’s president of programming. “Jane is a very good writer. We don’t want to limit her to writing female leads. There are a lot of very complicated leads in the pilot.”

Last year, Goldman hinted that her series will include humor and gore. “Those are things I love, and things I like to do,” she told Digital Spy. “It would be remiss of me not to put them in.”

The show, if ordered to series, will not air until at least a year after the end of “Game of Thrones” which completes its run in 2019 and has been described as “six one-hour movies.”(SD-Agencies)