House of the Dragon season 2 won’t take as long to film as season 1

Filming on House of the Dragon season 2 is now in full swing! The team was filming scenes at Harrenhal, the ruined castle where Arya Stark once whispered three names to Jaqen H’ghar back in the early days of Game of Thrones. Black Harren’s castle will be a major fixture in the wars to come, with several important new characters likely to be introduced there.

Even more promising is this news from reliable scooper Redanian Intelligence: filming on House of the Dragon season 2 is expected to wrap up quicker than it did for season 1. We’ve known that filming on House of the Dragon season 2 is slated to last for most of 2023, with Aemond Targaryen actor Ewan Mitchell saying a while back that the shoot was scheduled to last for eight months. Since the shoot started in April, that put the wrap date around October or November. But rumors have swirled since that the wrap date might be as late as December.

True to its name, Redanian Intelligence has spies everywhere. Sources close to the House of the Dragon production confirm that a September or October wrap date is still the plan for season 2 as of last week.

House of the Dragon season 2 filming will take less time than season 1

All told, this keeps Mitchell’s initial estimate of eight months roughly intact. If anything, it sounds like production may wrap up slightly faster than that. This is notable, because season 1 took quite a bit longer; filming started in April 2021 and wrapped in February 2022, making the total length of the shoot around 10 months.

There are a few reasons that House of the Dragon season 1 ran so long, the most obvious being the COVID-19 pandemic. Filming for season 1 was initially expected to wrap in November or December of 2021, but due to COVID delays, things ran into February of the following year.

There’s also the fact that season 1 consisted of 10 episodes, while season 2 only has eight. Then there’s the fact that season 1 laid a lot of track that season 2 can use: costumes, sets, familiarity on the part of the cast and crew…it’s easy to imagine why season 2 will take less time to film than its predecessor.

House of the Dragon season 2 is expected to premiere sometime in 2024. Until then, our watch continues.

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