HBO is officially filming the second season of House of the Dragon. Soon enough, we’ll be hanging out again with Rhaenyra, Daemon, Alicent and the rest of our favorite incest-happy backstabbers. And their dragons, of course.
Behind the scenes, HBO has assembled an impressive team. Ryan Condal will stay on as showrunner. Director Miguel Sapochnik departed at the end of season 1, but Game of Thrones director Alan Taylor — who directed Ned Stark’s beheading way back in season 1 — has come on board to direct episodes. Returning from House of the Dragon season 1, we’ve heard, are Clare Kilner and Geeta Patel, who directed the last days of King Viserys I Targaryen in “The Lord of the Tides.” Warrior director Loni Peristere may also be in the mix.
And now, we have evidence that Andrij Parekh has joined the lineup for director’s for season 2. His wife, filmmaker Sophie Barthes, said as much during an interview with Eye for Film. “He’s on Succession and now he’s doing House of Dragon in London,” she said.
Emmy-winning Succession director joins House of the Dragon season 2
Indeed, Parekh has directed episodes of HBO’s excellent family drama Succession for four seasons running, including its most recent episode, “Kill List.” He even won an Emmy for Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series for his work on the season 2 episode “Hunting.”
Succession is about an ultra-wealthy family of power players trying to get one over on each other as they vie for the top spot in the vast Waystar Royco empire. Add in fire-breathing beasts and it’s basically House of the Dragon. Parekh will fit into Westeros perfectly.
While the first season of House of the Dragon had 10 episodes, word is that the second season only have eight, part of a plan to space out the rest of the story evenly over four or so seasons total. If that’s the case, that’s five directors for eight episodes, which is a lot. Then again, Taylor and Parekh are the only ones we have official word on.
Getting back to Parekh’s wife Sophie Barthes, she’s the director of a movie called The Pod Generation, about a couple living in the near future who considers using advanced technology to incubate their pregnancy. As it happens, Game of Thrones star Emilia Clarke plays the wife.
So this whole directing family has Westerosi connections. The Pod Generation debuted at the Sundance Film Festival but doesn’t have a wide release date yet. As for House of the Dragon season 2, we an probably expect it to air on HBO and Max sometime in 2024.
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