House of the Dragon showrunners want to “carry on the legacy” of Game of Thrones

Ryan Condal is in charge of HBO’s Game of Thrones prequel. He discusses his Song of Ice and Fire super-fandom, his relationship with George R.R. Martin, and meeting fans’ expectations.

Game of Thrones is over, but the show was too big to just let lie. Even as we speak, HBO is preparing a prequel series: House of the Dragon, all about the Targaryen civil war known as the Dance of the Dragons, with English actor Paddy Considine as King Viserys I Targaryen.

House of the Dragon will be overseen by Miguel Sapochnik, who directed some of the very best Game of Thrones episodes, and Colony showrunner Ryan Condal. We’ll surely hear more about casting soon, but for now, Condal is getting out there and saying what he can about what to expect.

“There’s obviously tons of stuff that I could say, I feel like all of it would get me shot or fired!” Condal said on the Beyond the Trailer YouTube channel. “I will say this. I realize the shoulders that I’m standing on here in making this show. I realize the footsteps that I’m walking in – they’re very deep, they’re very intimidating, but I come to the show as, not only a huge fan of the original series, but also a fan of the books.”

"I found these books 20 years ago. When I graduated college Lord of the Rings was coming out, I was desperate for fantasy and I remember…I picked up Game of Thrones, the first book in the series, and read it, and I just I fell in deep, deep love. It was the book that I loved the most really, since Tolkien, and I’ve had this affinity for the books really since then."

A Song of Ice and Fire author George R.R. Martin has been compared to J.R.R. Tolkien before, and I’m sure Condal’s experience mimics that of many fans…or at least, it mimics how I felt about the series when I first found it. It’s a little weird that he found them 20 years ago and they’re still going on, but that’s a topic for another time.

Condal loved the books so much that, to use his words, he “stalked” Martin when he started his career in TV. “I was out there and I said to my agents basically ‘hey can you set me up for dinner with him?'”

"They did, and he accepted the offer and was interested in meeting me and we went out and had dinner and we kind of became friendly and we just kind of kept in touch. I was just excited, just that this guy knew who I was and was interested in me and my career. We stayed in touch over the years and he knew I loved his books and deeply cared about them."

If he already had a relationship with Martin, that might help explain why Condal was involved in developing prequel ideas for Game of Thrones in the first place.

In any case, it sounds like Condal is going to put his whole heart into this show, which is great news for fans. “I will say I’m coming at this as a fan who deeply, deeply cares about this, and I am doing my best currently and will do my best to service the world, the material that George and [Game of Thrones showrunners] David [Benioff] and Dan [Weiss] created are all coming before me. Miguel and I are really trying to carry on the legacy of the show.”

We don’t have a release date for House of the Dragon yet, but with things getting underway, we’re going to be learning all sorts of new things about the show very soon. Stay tuned.

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h/t Metro