HBO is currently readying House of the Dragon, a Game of Thrones prequel show set some 200 years before the original series. As a successor to Game of Thrones, obviously we expect the production values to be top-notch; the trailer leaves little doubt of that.
But at the end of the day, a successful TV series comes down to the writing. So how’s that shaping up?
Well, if you listen to star Olivia Cooke, who plays the ambitious Alicent Hightower, very well. She recently appeared on the She’s a Rec podcast, where the writing on House of the Dragon was only one of many topics discussed. “The scripts were so…what I’d read were so, so, so, good,” she remembered from when she was first auditioning for the job.
George R.R. Martin thinks the writing on House of the Dragon is “first-rate”
Fire & Blood author George R.R. Martin also recently weighed in on the writing, with his compliments. “I cannot speak to the SFX, many of which are not in yet, but the look of it is great, and the acting, the directing, and writing are first rate,” he said. “And yes, for all you book fans, it IS my story. Sure, there are some changes from FIRE & BLOOD — we could not present three alternative versions of every major event, not and keep our sanity — but I think Ryan Condal and his writers made good choices. Even some improvements.”
The signs are all good! But as Cooke says, there’s no way to know how this will all shake out until it happens. “I am excited…and who knows what the outcome of that will be?”
House of the Dragon premieres on HBO and HBO Max on August 21.
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