HBO exec talks expectations for House of the Dragon

HBO is nearly ready to debut its Game of Thrones prequel series House of the Dragon, and it wants you to know it. Between trailers, interviews, and huge spreads in Entertainment Weekly, HBO is getting the word out for what it hopes will be the next big fantasy sensation. They were behind the last big fantasy sensation, so at this point the crown is theirs to lose.

But even if House of the Dragon isn’t a hit, HBO is sitting pretty these days. The 2022 Emmy nominations were announced the other day, and HBO and HBO Max got a combined 140 noms, far outstripping the nearest competitor. Even if you take HBO Max out of the equation, HBO by itself got 108 noms, which beats out Netflix’s 105. Shows like Succession, Euphoria, Barry, Hacks and Station Eleven all did well, so HBO has a lot to fall back on.

Game of Thrones, meanwhile, is the most decorated drama in the history of the award show. Will House of the Dragon follow suit? That will depend on how people respond to the first season. Perhaps because of how many other irons HBO has in the fire, executive Casey Bloys doesn’t sound too worried about whether the new show will live up to the old. “I would say the measure of success is the same kind of metrics that we use for everything,” he told Variety. “Which is, some combination of ratings, of reviews, of buzz, all of the above. But there’s no threshold for it’s gotta hit this many viewers or anything like that.”

House of the Dragon isn’t guaranteed a second season…but it’ll probably get one

I think the premiere episode of House of the Dragon is pretty much guaranteed to get a lot of eyeballs on it; after that, it’ll be up to the cast and crew to maintain interest. That said, Bloys is confident enough in what he’s seen of show that he said there’s “a pretty good shot” of it getting a second season. We’ve even heard rumblings that writing is already underway.

But there’s no sense counting your dragon eggs before they hatch. House of the Dragon premieres on HBO and HBO Max on August 21.

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