More details on the storytellers behind House of the Dragon

HBO is making a Game of Thrones prequel series about House Targaryen! We learned that news a couple weeks back, and we’re still recovering. So far as we can tell, the show will zero in on the Dance of the Dragons, the bloody civil war that tore Westeros apart over 100 years before the series as we know it began. Targaryen vs Targaryen, dragon vs dragon…it’s a good yarn.

And who will be telling us this gripping tale, based on George R.R. Martin’s Fire & Blood? Martin himself was involved, of course, and “Battle of the Bastards” director Miguel Sapochnik is on hand to lend his expertise behind the camera. But the man who wrote the pilot and the script bible was Ryan Condal, the guy behind the sci-fi show Colony. The other day, Martin took to his Not a Blog to acknowledge the hard work of three other people who helped develop the show: Wes Tooke, a writer on Colony; Claire Kiechel, a playwright who’s worked on Netflix’s The OA and HBO’s Watchmen; and Ti Mikkel, a writer’s assistant at Martin’s own Fevre River Packet Company, where she helps develop TV shows and short films.

So what did this dream team do? Martin explains:

"They sat with Ryan every day in a writer’s room at HBO for months, talking story, going over drafts, giving notes, correcting errors (not that Ryan or I ever made any, no sir, not us), catching inconsistencies, discussing character and plot, offering ideas and suggestions, filling in gaps, breaking down the episodes to come and drawing up a roadmap for the first season and all the seasons to follow.   The HOUSE OF THE DRAGON could never have been built without the help of Ti, Claire, and Wes, three terrific young storytellers.   They have my thanks, and Ryan’s."

Now is a good time to remind everyone that, unlike the cancelled Game of Thrones prequel show set thousands of years in Westeros’ past, HBO has ordered House of the Dragon straight to series. That means we’re definitely getting 10 episodes of Targaryen goodness, and there’s a decent chance this is the team that will bring it to us.

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Although that’s not for certain. I wouldn’t be too quick to call this “the writer’s room” for House of the Dragon just yet. People who develop a series in the early stages don’t always stay on to write for it in the longterm, and the producers may yet want to hire more writers as things get underway.

Or they’ll stay on for 10 seasons, I dunno. In any case, it’s good to meet a few of the people behind the successor to Game of Thrones. Best of luck, all!

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