Ryan Condal is the man behind House of the Dragon, HBO’s follow-up to Game of Thrones. But he originally had in mind an entirely different story:
Recently, we had the pleasure of sitting down to chat with Ryan Condal, showrunner of HBO’s upcoming Game of Thrones successor series House of the Dragon, all about the Targaryen civil war known as the Dance of the Dragons. After nerding out about his new Hollywood memorabilia podcast with Veep’s David Mandel, Condal was gracious enough not to hang up when we asked about House of the Dragon, despite being remotely wired to explode should he reveal any spoilers.
First up, Condal walked us through how he ended up as showrunner in the first place. Originally, HBO was taking pitches from several writers, and even made a full pilot for a show tentatively titled Blood Moon, from writer Jane Goldman. That show would have been set thousands of years in Westeros’ past, but for whatever reason, HBO decided not to move forward on it, and ordered up House of the Dragon instead.
“Yeah it was pretty crazy,” Condal said. “I was actually the last writer into the mix. There was a previous attempt, a different script, different writer on this particular storyline, but it didn’t work out for whatever reason. Honestly, I never even thought this would pass through me. This was a new idea, a new way ahead. They had developed these five ideas, and it was sort of funny. I think I was one of the first writers they spoke to when they were discussing the spinoffs, and then I was the last guy they spoke to.”
That “different writer” was Game of Thrones scribe Bryan Cogman, who originally developed the idea for House of the Dragon before HBO shelved it in favor of Blood Moon. Then HBO passed on Blood Moon and decided to revive House of the Dragon, but by then Cogman signed a deal to develop content for Amazon. It seems like Condal came in around then, as Cogman himself suggested:
Yes, as was reported, that was the storyline. HBO decided to go with Jane’s pilot and I moved on to Amazon. But I’m thrilled they’re doing it now. George and Miguel are dear friends and Ryan’s a terrific writer who has assembled a fantastic team. I’m excited to see it.
— It's Christmastime Again, Bryan Cogman! (@cogman_bryan) May 11, 2020
However the Colony showrunner ended up with the job, it sounds like he has the stuff to do it right. “I am a huge Westeros fan, I discovered those books twenty years ago,” he said. “I’m a George R.R. Martin superfan.”
"The reason that I know George, the reason he approached me with this idea, was I fan-stalked him when I was making this pilot in Santa Fe, where he has a house. I knew I was going to be there for two months, so I just said to my agents, “Hey I know George lives in the area, can I buy him dinner while I’m here.” So we went out, we hit it off, he liked me, he liked that I brought a cool Western to shoot in his backyard."
That pilot, The Sixth Gun, was not picked up, but if it had been, two well known Game of Thrones actors might not have appeared on Thrones at all. Both Pedro Pascal (Oberyn Martell) and Michaiel Huisman (Daario Naharis) were set to star in The Sixth Gun, which was filming right before they made their Game of Thrones in season 4.
At any rate, after their initial meeting, Condal and Martin “kept in touch, and he brought up my name with HBO very kindly a couple times because he liked me, and they spoke to me very early when they were starting this spinoff process.”
As Condal said, he was one of the first writers contacted, but he wasn’t pitching House of the Dragon. He wanted to adapt Tales of Dunk and Egg, an ongoing series of novellas that follows the adventures of Ser Duncan the Tall and his squire Egg, who wander Westeros some 90 years before the events of the mainline A Song of Ice and Fire books.
“I very passionately pitched Dunk and Egg as a spinoff idea, because I thought that’s a great way to go,” Condal said. “With the original series, how do you even follow it? It’s so big, it’s so scopey, it’s so successful. The only way to do it, is to go against the grain, do this sort Lone Wolf and Cub, this wandering swordsman through the countryside.”
"HBO loves Dunk and Egg, they desperately love it, but George really wants to finish writing those stories before that’s adapted, I think he wants to be a little more involved with that."
A lot of fans agree that Dunk and Egg would make for a perfect TV show, but it’s hard to blame Martin here; I doubt he wants to risk making another TV series based on source material he hasn’t finished.
Publisher: Bantem Books
And so, Condal got on board with House of the Dragon. “I came back in the end, and I thought, when pitched this idea to me, the story of the Targaryens, I thought ‘great, this is the story we should be telling.’ I got really excited obviously, just to have the shot. I went at it thinking, ‘I’m just gonna give it my all, I know I’m up against five or six other pitches.'”
Then came the news that HBO didn’t just want a make a pilot for House of the Dragon; they ordered a whole first season. “I was shocked, I knew it was going well because I knew they liked it, but I never anticipated it. I was being set up as, if they were going to do anything they were going to do a pilot.”
"We got the call, and I was thinking ‘It’s all of HBO, they are greenlighting the pilot,’ and they said, ‘We’re making the whole series.’ I went into static shock [laughs]. I couldn’t believe it, I staggered out of my office and I went upstairs. I think I was just laughing because I couldn’t get out the sentence. I had to go tell my wife, ‘Hey we’re moving to Europe.’ There are some ugly days when you do this for a living, that was definitely, so far, the best day I’ve had as a writer."
Condal is developing the show alongside Miguel Sapochnik, the director on some of the very best Game of Thrones episodes, including “Battle of the Bastards” and “The Winds of Winter.” He and Condal have worked together before, so the transition was easy. “e’s a brilliant director, he knows Thrones obviously.”
Stay tuned for more on House of the Dragon!
To stay up to date on everything fantasy, science fiction, and WiC, follow our all-encompassing Facebook page and sign up for our exclusive newsletter.
Get HBO, Starz, Showtime and MORE for FREE with a no-risk, 7-day free trial of Amazon Channelsshowrun