Just as everyone could have predicted, House of the Dragon season 3 has become the main event of summer 2026. Between Rhaenyra finally taking the Iron Throne and rising to power in King's Landing and Ormund Hightower's bait and switch with the fake Daeron, the thrilling twists continue to drop a mile a minute in each episode, but fans can't stop thinking about the next season.
Long before the third season even made its premiere, HBO renewed House of the Dragon season 4 and confirmed that it would be the final season of the Game of Thrones prequel series. Even though the wait for season 3 was longer than fans would have wanted, it's natural that our minds drift to the upcoming final season, despite the fact we're still weeks away from the season 3 finale.
House of the Dragon showrunner Ryan Condal shared an update on season 4 back in June ahead of the season 3 premiere and revealed that they are "as far ahead as we've ever been" in the pre-production process, and now that we're nearing the halfway point of season 3, Condal's back with another update on the final season passing a huge milestone before filming begins.
House of the Dragon season 4 scripts have already been written
Condal appeared on the latest episode of the Scriptnotes podcast with hosts John August and Craig Mazin and spoke about his writing process on House of the Dragon and beyond. Naturally, the topic of season 4 came up, and Condal offered up news about how far along in the writing stage the final episodes are right now. To our delight, all of the scripts have been finished.
When asked by the host if the House of the Dragon writer's room continues to run after completing of the scripts in order to have the writers active during production in case of any changes, Condal explained how that's not the case for this particular show:
"All of the scripts have to be done. Season 4, we have essentially written already. HBO will have all of the drafts this summer. First drafts, our first drafts that we're choosing to share with the network. So, that's probably like the sixth draft. But we won't start production until early next year, early 2027, because the schedule is such a Jenga tower. Everything is scheduled to, sort of, set and location and all that, and the schedule effects the budget," Condal shared about the season 4 production status.
After Condal explained the current process for season 4, The Last of Us co-creator and Scriptnotes co-host Craig Mazin joked, "Why don't you do what I do? It's so much more interesting. Don't have all your written, just have a plan for the season. Write like three scripts, start shooting, know that you have six more scripts to write while you're shooting and directing. It really, I'm telling you, it keeps you alive." Obviously, that kind of strategy doesn't work for every show or writer.
House of the Dragon season 4 has finished the writing process, but the writers could still need to take another pass at the scripts after handing them over to the network this summer and incorporating any notes from HBO. Additionally, after turning the scripts in to the network, Condal gave some insight into how his producer will sit down and turn the scripts into a production schedule.
While to some fans it might seem like there's still no light at the end of the tunnel, we have truly turned a corner with this milestone. The scripts (a first-ish draft, as Condal emphasized!) are written and will be given to HBO this summer for production to begin in early 2027. Of course, that means season 4 won't be coming next year, but we already knew that the final season would premiere in 2028.
Check out the full Scriptnotes podcast episode with Ryan Condal below!
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