Over the weekend, HBO dropped the first trailer for House of the Dragon season 2, and it had us all in a tizzy.
More please, now please.
The trailer catches us up on what characters like Rhaenyra Targaryen, Daemon Targaryen and Alicent Hightower will get up to following the explosive ending of House of the Dragon season 1, where the murder of Rhaenyra’s son Lucerys took a standoff between two rival branches of the Targaryen dynasty and turned it into a civil war. I found the trailer thrilling to watch, and I wasn’t the only one. According to HBO’s official PR account on X/Twitter, it’s been watched 63 million times within 48 hours of going live!
The first teaser for @HouseofDragon season two has garnered 63 million organic global views across platforms in the first 48 hours, the #1 most watched original series teaser since the streaming platform launch in 2020.
— HBO PR (@HBOPR) December 4, 2023
This makes the House of the Dragon season 2 trailer the most-viewed trailer since the HBO streaming service Max launched in 2020. That means it beat the 48-hour window for any of the trailers for House of the Dragon season 1, which premiered in 2021.
It’s no surprise that people are hyped to see more of House of the Dragon. The show got off to a strong start because it’s a prequel to Game of Thrones, the most popular series in HBO history. But it earned the trust of its audience over its first 10 episodes, it ended with an exciting cliffhanger, and now people are eager to see more. I think House of the Dragon is doing a good job of distinguishing itself as its own entity while still maintaining strong connections to the wider Game of Thrones franchise.
The trick now will be keeping up the momentum. The first season of House of the Dragon was structurally complicated, with multiple time jumps and many key roles that required actor swaps partway through. That the show pulled it off is a credit to the show’s creative team. In many ways, season 2 will be more straightforward, but that’s no reason to get over-confident or drop the ball. Season 2 will have to be very careful about how it adapts this next, exciting stretch of George R.R. Martin’s book Fire & Blood. They’ve earned some goodwill. Let’s hope they capitalize on it rather than squander it.
House of the Dragon season 2 will premiere on HBO and Max sometime next summer.
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