Exactly how involved is George R.R. Martin in House of the Dragon?

HBO’s Game of Thrones prequel series House of the Dragon is a bonafide hit. There are probably an awful lot of happy people at HBO right about now.

When HBO started considering spinoffs for Game of Thrones, Martin immediately pitched a show about the Dance of the Dragons, but it wasn’t until he brought in Colony creator Ryan Condal that House of the Dragon truly began to take shape. Both Condal and Martin are both credited with creating the series, although with co-showrunner Miguel Sapochnik, who won’t be returning for season 2. But just how involved is Martin, really?

Misinformation about this is rampant, such as the rumor that Martin co-wrote the script for the season 1 finale (he didn’t). Since this is the Internet and anyone can say anything, let’s settle this by going straight to the source: Ryan Condal himself.

George R.R. Martin doesn’t “weigh in on every single little decision” on House of the Dragon

Condal has been making the press rounds to promote the House of the Dragon season finale. Deadline wanted to know whether Martin is part of the show’s writer’s room. “He was at the very beginning, way back when we had this very small group of writers, none of whom worked on the show once we officially got picked up,” Condal explained. “So he was involved with that.”

"Generally it’s George and I in communication. I send him everything. I send him outlines, I send him scripts, I send him cuts, I send him text messages, I send him questions, Why did you do this? What does this mean? Who is this person? We stay in constant communication. He’s very active and reads a lot and gives a lot of feedback. Other times he just sort of defers and says, go with the Gods. I keep him in constant contact with the materials so he can know what’s going on if he chooses to. But he is a very busy guy. It’s really hard for him to engage with us at the pace that we would need him to, to weigh in on every single little decision. The train is moving too fast. But he always knows what’s going on.That’s the thing that I promised him from the beginning: I might not always do exactly the thing that he wants me to do, but we will always talk about it. We will always have the discussion, and I’ve honored that."

All this makes an awful lot of sense. As Condal said, Martin is more than a little busy with various projects, not the least of which is the long-awaited sixth installment in his Song of Ice and Fire series,The Winds of Winter. Still, it’s reassuring to hear just how much effort Condal expends to keep Martin in the loop on the series. That kind of commitment to honoring the author’s vision bodes well for the series.

House of the Dragon season 1 is available now on HBO Max.

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