George R.R. Martin has watched House of the Dragon (and he loved it)

After the success of Game of Thrones, lots of networks moved to create their own high fantasy series. The Witcher. The Wheel of Time. Amazon has a Lord of the Rings series cooking for next year. But according to a recent report from IMDb, the most anticipated new show of 2022 — fantasy or otherwise — is House of the Dragon, HBO’s Game of Thrones prequel series.

At bottom, WiC is a Game of Thrones fansite, so obviously we’re happy about that. A Song of Ice and Fire writer George R.R. Martin recently revealed on his Not a Blog that he’s pleased as well, although he admits that he’s “hardly objective”; after all, he wrote Fire & Blood, the book on which House of the Dragon is based.

But he went further than that, revealing that he’s actually seen “a rough cut” of the House of the Dragon series premiere. And ladies and gentlemen, he “loved it.”

"It’s dark, it’s powerful, it’s visceral… just the way I like my epic fantasy.[Showrunners Ryan Condal and Miguel Sapochnik] have done an amazing job, and the cast… just as with GAME OF THRONES, most viewers will only have heard of a few of the actors, but I think you are going to fall in love with a lot of them.   (Only to have your heart broken later when… but no, that would be telling).I think the Targaryens are in very good hands.Anticipate away.   I do not think you will be disappointed."

I mean…that’s about as good an endorsement as you could possibly want.

When does House of the Dragon premiere?

And keep in mind that this was a rough cut that Martin saw, meaning a lot of the special effects and finer details aren’t added in yet.

And this show will need special effects. It takes place around 200 years before the original show, at a time when the Targaryens were at the height of their power and dragons were flying around literally everywhere. Seriously, there are so many dragons in this story; the Funko Pop! opportunities are limitless.

But of course, the good times don’t last; what did you expect from a follow-up to Game of Thrones? House of the Dragon tells the story of the Dance of the Dragons, a brutal civil war fought between different members of the Targaryen family. On one side there’s Rhaenyra Targaryen, the eldest child of King Viserys I Targaryen and his chosen successor to the Iron Throne. On the other side there’s her half-brother Aegon II Targaryen, who is pushed to take the throne for himself when King Viserys dies.

To make a long, complicated story short, things get really bloody really fast. If HBO pulls this off, we could be in for something spectacular.

House of the Dragon premieres sometime in 2022. Bring it.

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