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House of the Dragon: Everything we know about the Game of Thrones spinoff

Nick Perry
Chris Gates
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Winter is coming — again. HBO has long been searching for a new series set in George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire universe following Game of Thrones, and the most likely product of that search now appears to be House of the Dragon.

Announced just hours after HBO’s first Game of Thrones prequel was canceled by the network, House of the Dragon will be a new prequel and has already received a full-season order from the premium network. One of several spinoffs in development, House of the Dragon will bring us back to a Westeros that is both familiar and foreign by focusing on House Targaryen — 300 years before the events of the original series. Here’s everything we know about the upcoming prequel series so far.

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More great characters

Game of Thrones gained a reputation for producing some of the greatest characters we’ve ever seen on TV. As House of the Dragon ramps back up in production, Olivia Cooke — who plays Queen Alicent Hightower — assured Collider that the spinoff series will deliver a similar level of character complexity.

“What’s amazing about Game of Thrones, like we saw in the past series, is that one season, you hate a character, and the next, you absolutely love them and will go to the ends of the earth for them,” Cooke said. “You just don’t know what you’re gonna get with these characters. They’re so well-written. Such is the human condition, you can do some horrendous things, but then you can also do some wonderful things as well. It’s very complex, and it’s not black and white at all.”

In a holding pattern

Like many television and film projects, certain aspects of development on House of the Dragon were brought to a halt. The series was still in the early stages of scripting when productions were shut down around the world, so it remains to be seen how much the lockdown will delay the series.

Premiere date

In an interview with Deadline, HBO’s president of programming, Casey Bloys, said the new series will air “sometime in 2022.” Bloys did not offer additional detail about the show except to say that writing for the series is underway and that although several other Game of Thrones successors are in the works, House of the Dragon is the primary focus.

“There are no other blinking green lights or anything like that,” Bloys said. “Sometime down the road who knows, but there are no immediate plans. We are all focusing on House of the Dragon.”

House of the Dragon should be available on HBO and HBO Max, WarnerMedia’s streaming service.

The production team

House of the Dragon was co-created by A Song of Ice and Fire author and Game of Thrones executive producer George R.R. Martin and screenwriter Ryan Condal. Condal will pen the pilot and is expected to serve as showrunner alongside Game of Thrones veteran Miguel Sapochnik, who will direct the first episode.

#HouseOfTheDragon, a #GameofThrones prequel is coming to @HBO.

The series is co-created by @GRRMSpeaking and Ryan Condal. Miguel Sapochnik will partner with Condal as showrunner and will direct the pilot and additional episodes. Condal will be writing the series. pic.twitter.com/9ttMzElgXm

— Game of Thrones (@GameOfThrones) October 29, 2019

Notably absent from the production team are David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, who served as creators and showrunners for Game of Thrones. After that series ended, they famously admitted they weren’t initially qualified for the gig. No word on when or if they will become involved with House of the Dragon.

The story

House of the Dragon is based on George R. R. Martin’s Game of Thrones tie-in Fire & Blood and is set about 300 years before the flagship series. It centers on the trials of House Targaryen, the noble family that conquered Westeros and united the Seven Kingdoms — and that eventually produced Daenerys, who was both one Game of Thrones‘ most beloved heroes and most fearsome villains.

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