Game of Thrones showrunners “entirely hands off” on prequel series House of the Dragon

HBO is currently hard at work on House of the Dragon, its first follow-up series to the wildly popular Game of Thrones. I say “first,” because HBO also a bunch of other GoT spin-offs in development, including an animated series and a show based on George R.R. Martin Tales of Dunk and Egg, but executive Casey Bloys is quick to remind people that House of the Dragon is the only one actually in production, despite what you may have heard.

”House of the Dragon is the only one shooting,” Bloys told Variety. “All the other ones are in various stages of development. People may think we have 10 series shooting at the moment. There’s one that will be on the air in 2022. We’ll see how the other scripts come along.”

Like Bloys says, House of the Dragon will premiere in 2022, and that’s guaranteed; there’s no chance they can cancel this one after making a pilot like they did with the mysterious Blood Moon prequel a while back.

As for what to expect, Bloys very pleased with the dailies he’s seen. “It looks spectacular,” he said. “The cast that [showrunners Miguel Sapochnik and Ryan Condal] have put together looks good.” Obviously Bloys is biased, but I’ll take it.

David Benioff and Dan Weiss not involved in Game of Thrones prequel House of the Dragon

Miguel Sapochnik was a director on Game of Thrones, and helmed terrific episodes like “Hardhome” and “The Winds of Winter.” Ryan Condal is a friend of George R.R. Martin’s and the showrunner on the sci-fi series Colony. The two will take over showrunning duties from David Benioff and Dan Weiss, who served as showrunner for all eight seasons of Game of Thrones.

Benioff and Weiss, meanwhile, have struck a deal with Netflix are a developing a range of new projects, one of which — university drama The Chair — is due out in August. Bloys confirmed that they “have been entirely hands off” with House of the Dragon. “They’re off working at Netflix.”

Now, I’d already assumed that Benioff and Weiss weren’t at all involved with House of the Dragon — Netflix isn’t likely to let their new $200 million contract players work for a rival — but it’s interesting that Variety felt the need to ask about it. I suppose George Lucas shows up on the set of Star Wars movies he’s not involved in, so it was possible Benioff and Weiss could still be keeping tabs on Westeros.

And that’s a touchy subject among fans, since no one was more savaged online after the show’s divisive ending than Benioff and Weiss. The narratives that circulate online about them to this day can be…whew, the internet is a weird place sometimes. Some fans condemn them as hacks and charlatans, some (fewer, to be sure) praise them as geniuses. Neither view is correct: Benioff and Weiss are writers and producers; they did a lot of stuff on Game of Thrones that I loved, some stuff I hated, and now they’re producing other TV shows for Netflix, some of which look pretty interesting and I’ll probably watch.

I wish I could say “end of story,” but unfortunately it isn’t up to me.

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