George R.R. Martin reveals how he wanted to start House of the Dragon

George R.R. Martin is the author behind A Song of Ice and Fire, the famously meaty fantasy novels that formed the basis for HBO’s Game of Thrones. He also wrote Fire & Blood, a history of the Targaryen dynasty HBO is currently adapting as House of the Dragon. His mind is a veritable fountain of potential IP.

That’s what a lot of fans love about Martin: he includes so much detail in his books that the fake histories he invents can feel as real and vivid as the history of our own world…just with more dragons. House of the Dragon is a successful new show that covers the events of a brutal Targaryen civil war known as the Dance of the Dragons, and it’s only adapting part of Fire & Blood. The final third or so of the book deals with the Dance, but the rest of it details events that could easily form the foundations of entirely different TV series.

We’ll see if that ever comes to pass. Right now, HBO is working on the second season of House of the Dragon, with Martin helping the writing team as a consultant. He also helped write the first season, and had a voice in the room when the writers were deciding exactly when in this detailed history the story should begin.

George R.R. Martin wanted House of the Dragon to begin with King Viserys’ father

Martin recounted how those conversations went down during a discussion with writer David Anthony Durham last October. “[O]ne of the big issues with all of these writers was where to begin?…Do you begin with Aegon’s conquest? That’s a long time ago. Do you begin with, well you saw the show, you saw where [House of the Dragon showrunner Ryan Condal] began. And I think he made a great choice. He began in 101 with the great council with the Lord’s vote that Jaehaerys’s heir, he’s just lost his son Baelon, who has died of appendicitis. So who is his heir now. And they choose the Lord’s vote to choose Viserys over Rhaenys. And then you immediately skip forward. It’s just that one prologue scene. And then you skip forward to skip over Jaehaerys’s death, skip over all that. Viserys has been in power for a number of years, and you pick it up with the tournament, the conflict with Daemon, the birth of his male heir. And of course, it turns into a horror when his wife Queen Aemma dies and the child dies a day later and Rhaenyra is declared heir.”

Martin basically just described the pilot for House of the Dragon. But it was never guaranteed that the story would start there. “We, myself and the other writers, had a lot of spirited discussions about where to begin that story,” Martin said. “One of the writers wanted to begin it later, wanted to begin it essentially with Aemma dying. So skipped the great council, skipped the tournament…Aemma’s dead…[S]o that was one possibility. And another of the writers wanted to be an even later than that to begin with Viserys dying. So you open act one, scene one, Viserys is, ah oh. And what happens there? Well, then you have to present all that material in flashbacks or dialogue. That becomes challenging too.

"And the other possibility we discussed was it was actually my favorite possibility, but nobody liked it except me. I would’ve began it much earlier. I would’ve began it like 40 years earlier with a episode I would’ve called “The Heir and the Spare” in which Jaehaerys’ two sons, Aemon and Baelon are alive. And we see the friendship, but also the rivalry between the two sides of the Great House. And then you know, Aemen dies accidentally when a Myrish crossbowman shoots him by accident on Tarth. And then Jaehaerys has to decide who becomes the new heir. Is it the daughter of the older son who’s just died? Or is it the second son who’s only, you know, has children of his own and is a man and she’s just a teenage girl? You know, all of that stuff. So you could have presented all of that stuff, but then you would’ve had 40 more years and you would have even more time jumps and you would have even more recasts. And I was the only one who was really enthused about that."

Baelon Targaryen, FYI, is the father of King Viserys, who is already a grown man in the premiere episode. It’s no surprise that Martin wanted to start earlier than any of the other writers. Again, he likes detail, which is great but also means he can take a while to write; just ask any fan who’s been waiting to read The Winds of Winter these past 12 years.

George R.R. Martin would like to spend more time with Rhaenyra Targaryen and Harwin Strong

Back to House of the Dragon, things went how they went, and we got the first season we got. Overall, it was a huge success, although Martin wonders if it could have slowed down at points to explore certain aspects more thoroughly.

“Rhaenyra’s relationship with Harwin Strong, she had three children by him, but we never even see them get together for the first time or kiss,” Martin said. We never have a scene when they first slept with each other. We don’t know exactly what has happened and how he felt about that, and how Laenor felt about him. There’s a whole story there. There’s at least a novella, maybe a novel. But we’d simply did not have the time to tell it. And it did not fit the format of my history books. So, but it’s a story, and I would love to love to do that.”

I think a lot of fans would have liked to have seen more of Harwin Strong. Ah well, there’s always fanfic.

George R.R. Martin previews House of the Dragon season 2

The first season of House of the Dragon ended with Rhaenyra Targaryen’s half-brother Aemond killing her son Lucerys Velaryon, turning what had been a cold war into a blazing hot one.

That episode climaxed in a dragon-on-dragon battle in the sky that was pretty spectacular. Although as Martin shared, it looked a little less impressive before all the special effects were added in. “It’s an amazing sequence they did last night with the storm and the dragons appearing and disappearing in the clouds,” he said. “And that’s the magic of special effects, the magic of cinematography. And it’s considerably different.”

"Although my favorite, I saw many of the episodes in a rough cut ahead of time. Do you remember the, I think it was episode three with a king went hunting and he was hunting for a white hart. And they find a hart, which is not actually white. but he deals with that heart. well, in the rough cut, the part of the hart was played by two stuntmen in bright blue costumes. The Blue Man Group, sort of one of ’em was holding the other one around the waist. And you know, the king is stabbing at them with his spear, So the king is hunting the Blue Man group. it was hilarious when you saw it, but of course, by the time it was finished, it was beautiful, realistic looking hart. So you have to get used to, if you work in this business, to know what what a rough cut is and be able to visualize what the final version would be."

What I wouldn’t have given to see that on the Blu-ray.

Now things turn toward House of the Dragon season 2, which HBO is filming as we speak. “[E]verything gets bigger and more characters come into play,” Martin said. “And we switch to more locations. I mean, the first season we were pretty much Kings Landing. Dragonstone, Driftmark with the main locations. Occasionally we went to the Stepstones, uh, for a little battle in dragon Action. Or to Storm’s End. But mostly it was centered on that. But now as things get serious, you’ll be going to other locations, Winterfell and the Starks and you know, possibly, the Riverlands, Harrenhal, all of these places will be seen, more families and dragons will come into it and it just gets bigger.”

Season 2 will also introduce many new characters, including a young peasant girl named Nettles who ends up riding a dragon. That’s someone Martin would like to spend a lot of time with. “Where does she come from? Where does she go to? What is her life like? What is her life like after she fades from the public sphere?” he asked. “I have thought at various points of time writing an entire novel about a character we haven’t gotten to yet. Aegon the fourth, Aegon the Unworthy. He’s like Henry VIII of Westeros, except worse…[H]e’s not a nice guy, but he’s a interesting guy. And that’s something that fascinates me. What makes a villain? What makes a hero? Are there people who are all good and all evil? I don’t know, but there’s a million characters. I just need to live to be, you know, 150. and I can write all of this.”

No wonder it takes him so long to write anything; he has a million ideas going at once.

Finally, Martin revealed what he’s most looking forward to seeing on House of the Dragon, and it’s probably what a lot of fans are looking forward to. “Well, yeah, the battle over the Gods Eye,” he said, referring to a clash we probably won’t see until season 3 or so. “[A]lthough that battle that they did in the season finale was pretty amazing too.”

House of the Dragon season 2 should premiere on HBO and Max sometime in 2024.

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