House of the Dragon boss responds to Game of Thrones season 8 backlash

At this point, it seems like everyone in the universe has heard that many fans were disappointed in the eighth and final season of Game of Thrones season eight. The HBO show was the biggest series in the world, continuously breaking records and sweeping up awards. It’s a shame that the ending disappointed so many. But there’s still a lot more story to tell, and HBO is ready to tell it. Prepare yourselves for House of the Dragon.

Based on George R.R, Martin’s Fire and Blood, House of the Dragon is set some 200 years before the events of the flagship series; back when dragons were plentiful and House Targaryen was at the height of its power. Expect lots of fire and blood as the Targaryens battle it out for the Iron Throne. Check out the extended trailer revealed during San Diego Comic-Con:

House of the Dragon is “fortunate” to be in Game of Thrones’ shadow

Given that Game of Thrones was a global phenomenon, any follow-up is under a lot of pressure. Co-showrunner Ryan Condal sounds like he’s handling it pretty well. “I think what the final season of Game of Thrones teaches us is that that was the biggest audience in television history, and honestly it’s a fan audience,” he told Den of Geek. “It’s a Comic-Con audience. And they’re very vocal online and they have a lot of things to say.”

"For me, that [reaction] is the mark of a very successful show that ran for 10 years, and we are very lucky and fortunate to be in its shadow, and I think we owe that show a whole ton of due gratitude for putting us where we are. I’m not making House of the Dragon if David [Benioff] and Dan [Weiss] didn’t have great success making Game of Thrones."

Overall, Condal was very diplomatic about the backlash to the original series, noting that there was a lot more “fan engagement” on social media at the end of Game of Thrones than at the beginning, when something like TikTok wasn’t even around yet. “I don’t know whether it’s been all for the best, honestly. I nostalgically look back to a simpler time where the wall between the entertainment and the audience was a little thicker, and it was harder to find out all the little details about how something was made and to see all the magic tricks as they were done. I think there’s a lot less of that now. There’s a lot less magic and specialness and uniqueness in filmed entertainment, just because everybody has so much access to all this information all the time.”

"I’m trying to make the show that I would like to see as a fan of George’s books and I hope everybody likes it, but I also understand that with the massive audience that’s hopefully coming this way, there is going to be people of all spectrums that feel all different ways about the show, and that’s just part of the responsibility that you take on as the showrunner…I think the advantage that we have, again thanks to David and Dan, is we have this huge, built-in audience who’s already interested in this property and material, whereas they had to win over people. In 2011, everybody was asking, what’s a Game of Thrones? Now, it’s a household term. Everybody knows what it is. So, I think for me, it’s really just trying to actually block all that out, write a great story, produce a great show, put it on, and then hope that we’re doing good service to that very vocal, very passionate audience that’s waiting to see the show."

House of the Dragon premieres on August 21 on HBO!

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