George R.R. Martin excited to see “17 dragons” on Game of Thrones prequel

A Song of Ice and Fire author George R.R. Martin has a dream: he wants to be beheaded.

Well, he wants a prop version of his own severed head, something he never got on Game of Thrones. As he explained the other day on The Stuff Dreams Are Made Of podcast, the original plan was to make severed heads modeled off himself as well as showrunners David Benioff and Dan Weiss, and then mount them on spikes for the season 1 scene where Joffrey makes Sansa look at her own father’s severed head. But the budget wasn’t as big back then as it became, and they had to make due with a box full of used heads, including one bearing the likeness of President George W. Bush.

“We didn’t cut George Bush’s head off, somebody else cut his head off and we bought it used, along with a lot of other people,” Martin explained. “It was just a used severed head. But I really would have liked to have my own severed…and mount it in my office or something, on a spike. Everybody should have their own severed head, don’t you think?”

As it happens, The Stuff Dreams Are Made Of is co-hosted by Ryan Condal, the showrunner behind the upcoming Game of Thrones prequel series House of the Dragon, so he’s actually in a position to grant Martin’s wish. “George, I think we can make that promise right now on this podcast. I’m going to make your dream come true…I think we have a number of those coming up without giving anything away and I think we can make your dream come true…We can and will make that happen.”

Martin, ever the detail man, even knows what weapon he’d like to be beheaded with. “Gotta be Blackfyre, it’d be a cleaner cut, Dark Sister’s a slimmer sword,” referring to a couple of Valyrian steel blades used at the time when the series is set, around 180 years before the mani show. And once again, Condal is coming through: “Yes, you will see Blackfyre and Dark Sister, both coming soon to a television near you.”

George R.R. Martin broke the pilot for House of the Dragon with Ryan Condal

Indeed, Condal seems like he has his heart in the right place when it comes to this project. He recalled being a huge fan of Martin’s books long before Game of Thrones came about, and how much they taught him about being a writer. “I learned a lot about character and storytelling and atmosphere and theme…literary tools like foreshadowing and how to write compelling prophecy that doesn’t sound dinky or foregone conclusion…all these things that I still use today that I learned from those books.”

"It still blows my mind that I’m sitting here doing this show all these years later when I just started out as a fan."

That passion was one of the things that set Condal apart from the other writers who HBO had drafted to pitch Game of Thrones spinoff projects as the original show was winding down. “But there were a number of other shows that were developed at that time, most of them put together by writers that HBO hired who had never read my books…and when we were getting into this, I didn’t want that anymore,” Martin said. “Obviously, none of those shows ultimately got on the air. I thought, ‘I want people, if they’re gonna be working in my world, I want them to have actually read my books.’ And I liked Ryan’s work, and I knew that he knew the world.”

Ryan and Martin had actually become friends some years earlier and had even talked separately about potential spinoffs. As Martin remembered:

"I knew that Ryan knew my world, because somewhere in there…when we would get together for drinks in LA or something, Ryan had mentioned wanting to do a Dunk and Egg series…which is a concept I had actually pitched to HBO…but at that time they weren’t interested in Dunk and Egg…But we had talked about that and I knew he knew my world."

So naturally, Condal was Martin’s first choice when it came to the show that went on to become House of the Dragon, about a Targaryen civil war that tore Westeros apart. “We broke the pilot together, the back of it, this was three years ago now, but the rest is history in the writing,” Condal said.

Martin teases “17 dragons” with different personalities on House of the Dragon

Another great insight came towards the end of the podcast, when Martin shared what he most excited to see on House of the Dragon, which is based on his book Fire & Blood:

"I’ve always thought this was a cool story, it’s one I like, so I’m looking forward to seeing it come alive onscreen. And of course I’m looking forward to the dragons, obviously I love the dragons. And we had three of them in Game of Thrones, but now we have like 17 of them. And hopefully they’ll each have their own personalities, they’ll be instantly recognizable when you see them, the colors and all of that, cause the dragons do have personalities in the books, and it’ll be great to see that come alive, and the dragonriders. That’s all pretty cool."

And once again, Condal is promising to make good: “I think you’re gonna be pretty happy, George. We’re working very hard on all that and it’s deeply exciting, it’s something that I’m very excited about, as well.”

The whole podcast is well worth a listen. House of the Dragon premieres on HBO and HBO Max sometime in 2022!

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