It’s been an up and down week for Game of Thrones fans. First came the news that series creators David Benioff and D.B. Weiss would no longer be working on an upcoming Star Wars trilogy, which had been set to be the next film series in the Galaxy Far, Far Away. Then came word that the Long Night-focused GoT prequel series was canceled, followed almost immediately by news that another prequel series, this one about the House of Targaryen, had been ordered direct to series. Phew. There hasn’t been this much Game of Thrones excitement since at least season 7 (obligatory season 8 dig).
Let’s focus on the positive news here. The prequel series we’ll actually get to see is called House of The Dragon. The new series chronicles the rise of the Targaryen family, long known for their kinship with the flying firebreathers, and is based on George R.R. Martin’s book Fire & Blood which, unfortunately, has an unpublished sequel in the works. Martin himself is credited as co-creator and executive producer on the series, which almost certainly means he’ll never finish writing A Song of Ice & Fire — let alone write a sequel to Fire & Blood. Ryan Condal and GoT director Miguel Sapochnik will be the showrunners on House of The Dragon.
By picking this series, HBO is apparently betting on dragons and spectacle being everybody’s favorite part of Game of Thrones. That’s debatable, considering the beasts were small and not all that impactful during the show’s first few seasons, and many fans favored the show’s plotting and political intrigue — two aspects that went out the window in favor of more special effects as the show winded down.
It’s not clear when House of The Dragon will air, but when it does it will do so on the new streaming service HBO Max, and presumably on regular ol’ HBO, too.
