We're in the home stretch of 2025, which means that the biggest year in Game of Thrones franchise history is about to begin. 2026 holds not one, but two seasons of new Thrones spinoffs: the premiere of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms in January, and the third season of House of the Dragon sometime in the summer (August, according to Matt Smith). Suffice to say, we're going to have plenty to talk about from the Seven Kingdoms in the coming months.
But for now, we do have an exciting little update from House of the Dragon showrunner Ryan Condal to touch on as well. Think of it as a last holiday gift of the year, before we roll full on into the bloodshed and betrayal of the Dance of the Dragons civil war next year and beloved (or hated) characters start dropping like flies.
Writing on House of the Dragon season 4 has begun "in earnest"
Speaking on his props collecting podcast The Stuff Dreams Are Made Of, Condal reflected on the year behind him — which was an important one, considering House of the Dragon filmed the entirety of its third season in 2025, which is expected to have its most ambitious moments yet. The showrunner confirmed that season 3 is officially in post-production, and he's been hard at work directing his team on "cuts, editing, visual effects, all those fun things." Season 3 wrapped filming in late October, so this update is not unexpected but still very welcome.
Condal also confirmed that writing on season 4 "began in earnest...a couple months ago." This aligns roughly with that season 3 wrap date, which makes complete sense. From the sound of things, as soon as the cameras stopped rolling, the writers started really kicking things into gear on the next season. Condal sounds pleased about it all, saying "we're making progress on, you know, kind of all fronts."
Despite the fact that filming on season 3 is over, Condal gave a glimpse behind the curtain of filmmaking by explaining how his life is actually "way crazier now" than during the shoot. "[E]ven though maybe the hours are better and you're not getting in the car at 6:30 in the morning or whatever to go to the studio...the team skinnies down to like essentially 25 people between post and the writing office," he said, going on to add how the burden which is spread across different directors during filming all settles firmly back on his shoulders as showrunner in post-production with the smaller team. Condal sounds more enthusiastic than exhausted about all this, so we'll chalk it up as a good sign!
HBO is "very happy" with House of the Dragon season 3
And that's not all! With most productions of House of the Dragon's size, it's normal for reshoots of small things to occur later in post-production. As Condal's podcast co-host David Mandel explains, these can be for things as simple as needing a bit more explanation for a plot point or even someone just drawing a sword out of their scabbard. The reshoots exist more to "glue" other scenes together than properly re-do anything.
Condal confirmed there are "things that we're...already looking at," for reshoots, and that he expects to tackle those sometime in early 2026. And of course, since House of the Dragon is a seasoned production at this point, these reshoots are already built into the schedule and budget for the series from the jump, so they won't inconvenience the series or HBO at all.
One last bit of joyous news from Condal: he and his team have already turned in episodes to HBO, so the powers that be at the studio can check out some of the first drafts of House of the Dragon season 3. "They're very happy, which is always nice to hear," Condal said.
It's great to end 2025 on a positive note for House of the Dragon with these reassurances that all is going well on seasons 3 and 4. We'll have our ear to the ground for more updates as the show's summer release date approaches!
In the meantime, we'll be returning to Westeros in a few short weeks for A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms. The new Game of Thrones spinoff premieres January 18 on HBO and HBO Max.