Amongst HBO’s lineup of upcoming television shows, House of the Dragon obviously stands the tallest, seeing as it’s a prequel series to Game of Thrones, one of the most globally successful serial offerings in the history of the small screen medium. Consequently, a recent tease by the channel’s big brass for a second season of the series—even as the first season remains without a release date—might not even be perceived as premature. Indeed, for a franchise with a history of producing exorbitant, ultimately scrapped pilot episodes, it’s an auspicious sign, especially as its fandom remains divided over Thrones’ 2019 finale.
House of the Dragon already seems to be a shoo-in for a second season renewal—at least that’s what HBO/HBO Max chief content officer Casey Bloys suggests to Variety. The series, which adapts and expands the elaborate, quasi-medieval lore of George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire source material novels, takes place around 200 years before the events of Game of Thrones, showcasing palace intrigue centered on the brutal, dragon-riding, incest-enthusiastic royal Targaryen family. While would-be viewers do have the October-released trailer for reference, the results of the prequel’s just-wrapped inaugural season are apparently auspicious enough to stoke Season 2 talk.
“If you’re betting on whether we’re going to do a second season, I think it’s probably a pretty good bet,” says Bloys. “Generally speaking, we usually let something air and see how it does, but obviously, we’ll make preparations ahead of time to make sure we’re ahead of the game.”
In a manner akin to the series from which it was spun, House of the Dragon will eventually arrive at the HBO table with a sizable ensemble, many of whom stand to become stars. The cast also even features a few faces recognizable to genre fans, notably former Doctor Who star Matt Smith and Outlander’s Graham McTavish. However, based on the earliest previews, it seems that the character of Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen, played by Emma D’Arcy (Truth Seekers) is about as close to a protagonist as it might have. That’s because the show’s story will build toward an eventual intra-family Targaryen war, called “the Dance of the Dragons,” after the royal ascension of lawful heir Rhaenyra becomes challenged by manipulative forces who back another (notably male) family member, thrusting the entire kingdom into an unprecedentedly enormous state of disarray.
The show’s Dance of the Dragons story is based on Ice and Fire background lore published in Martin’s 2018 book, Fire & Blood, which will manifest onscreen under the creative purview of a showrunner pair consisting of esteemed Game of Thrones directorial alumnus Miguel Sapochnik and Colony’s Ryan Condal, with both onboard as executive producers alongside Vince Gerardis and George R.R. Martin. Pertinent to the latter, House of the Dragon also received a crucial thumbs-up from mythos creator Martin himself, who, on his blog, called Not a Blog, bestowed praise on the creative team based on firsthand footage he’s watched.
“Exciting news out of London — I am informed that shooting has WRAPPED for the first season of House of the Dragon,” declares Martin. “Yes, all ten episodes. I have seen rough cuts of a few of them, and I’m loving them. Of course, a lot more work needs to be done. Special effects, color timing, score, all the post-production work. But the writing, the directing, the acting all look terrific. I hope you will like them as much as I do. My hat is off to Ryan and Miguel and their team, and to our amazing cast.”
Of course, Martin’s role as executive producer on House of the Dragon—necessary as it may be for the integrity and accuracy of the show’s lore adaptation—is but one of several irons the author has in a proverbial fire filled with television and video game projects; an overstuffed backlog that increasingly impatient book fans see as detrimental to the chances of the long-delayed sixth book The Winds of Winter (and, by proxy, the seventh-and-final novel A Dream of Spring) ever seeing the light of day. Contextually, the book has seen the goal post of its release date moved myriad times over the decade that passed since the fifth book A Dance with Dragons was released back in July 2011. The ultimate ending of the literary mythos will purportedly deviate dramatically from the climactic television-adapted events depicted on Game of Thrones, which a wide array of fans and critics believe unfolded in a rushed, inorganic manner over its abbreviated 6-episode final season.
Nevertheless, the franchise faces an increasingly likely scenario in which the main story’s penultimate novel The Winds of Winter will actually be predated by the premiere of the still-hypothetical second season of the prequel adaptation TV series House of the Dragon. Talk about the tail wagging the fire-breathing dragon of a dog!
House of the Dragon doesn’t have a specific release date as of yet, but HBO has been teasing a premiere for 2022.
