George R.R. Martin says planning for House of the Dragon season 3 starts “soon”

Recently, filming wrapped up on the second season of House of the Dragon, HBO’s Game of Thrones prequel show. And we have the images from the wrap party to prove it. Come the summer of 2024, we’ll be able to catch up with Rhaenrya, Daemon, Aemond and the rest of the warring dragon-riders as House of the Dragon season 2 airs on HBO and Max.

But what about after that? House of the Dragon is based on the book Fire & Blood by George R.R. Martin. The first season was basically all setup while the second will dig into the inter-family Targaryen war known as the Dance of the Dragons, but it won’t complete the story. At the rate they’re going, HBO could wring three or four seasons out of this story, even five if they really wanted to take their time.

We haven’t heard of HBO renewing House of the Dragon for a third season, which makes some sense; after all, the second hasn’t even aired yet. But when HBO knows a show is a hit, renewing seasons ahead of time could minimize wait times between new episodes, which have plagued TV in recent years. Amazon Prime Video is ahead of the game by renewing The Wheel of Time for a third season before the second season aired. Will House of the Dragon follow suit?

Martin himself sounds optimistic. Speaking to Bang Magazine, he hinted that things are in motion. “In television, we have the new show, House of the Dragon, which has just finished filming its second season, and we’re going to be doing planning for the third season soon,” he said.

If HBO is smart, it will get a move on more seasons of House of the Dragon sooner rather than later. It’s a risk to commit the resources needed to renew a show without knowing whether people will tune in to see it, but the first season of House of the Dragon was a big enough hit that it’s worth it. If HBO can manage to release new seasons at a healthy clip, they will have an edge in the competitive world of high-end fantasy TV, which is crowded right now with shows like The Wheel of Time, The Rings of Power, The Witcher and more.

George R.R. Martin says there are “like eight other [Game of Thrones] spin-off shows”

Martin also mentioned several other potential Game of Thrones spinoff shows in development. “But I also have like eight other spin-off shows that we’re developing,” he said. “The Dunk and Egg show has been greenlit. The others, not yet, but we’re still working on them, developing some of them.”

For the record, I doubt that Martin is being straight-ahead literal when he says there are “like eight other spin-off shows” in development. It’s true that, at one time or another, HBO was developing a lot of potential Game of Thrones spinoff shows, including a show about the younger days of Corlys Velaryon and another about Nymeria of the Rhoynar. A sequel series about Jon Snow has garnered a lot of attention. But they’ve cancelled some shows too, including a prequel called Blood Moon (they made a full pilot for that one) and a proposed show set in the Flea Bottom slum in King’s Landing.

So while there probably other Game of Thrones spinoff ideas in the hopper, different ideas are in difference stages of development, and I suspect Martin was guesstimating the overall number. As of right now, only two Game of Thrones shows are in active development: House of the Dragon has a second season on the way, and a show based on Martin’s Dunk and Egg novellas is gearing up to go into production next year.

And those may be the only two spinoffs in production for a long while. HBO Casey Bloys has come out and said that, unlike certain other studios, HBO is taking a slow-and-steady approach to the Game of Thrones universe, if you want to call it that. “[I]f you let quality be your guide… that’s a pretty good way to balance it,” he said. “I think not starting with a preset, ‘We need five tentpoles’… any sort of prescribed amount to fill, and just focusing on quality is a good way to do it.”

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