The second season of House of the Dragon is almost upon us, and the hype is extremely real. Are you Team Black or Team Green? Will Rhaenyra Targaryen get revenge for the death of her son Lucerys? Is getting revenge a slippery slope that leads to the annihilation of both sides in the coming war for the Iron Throne? Is man the real monster? And when do we get to see dragons tear each apart in the sky? All these questions will be answered next month.
There was no guarantee the show would interest people this much. House of the Dragon is a prequel to Game of Thrones, the most popular series in the history of HBO. But Game of Thrones had a famously divisive ending. Would people tune into this new take?
They did — House of the Dragon is one of a couple big recent successes for HBO, alongside its post-apocalyptic drama The Last of Us. With some credibility established, showrunner Ryan Condal is feeling much more comfortable heading into season 2. "It's better than going into the first season when you don't know if anybody is going to watch this at all. Are they all going to hate me?" he said during an interview on the official Game of Thrones podcast. "This is such a unicorn phenomena, to have this show that was so widely accepted right out of the gate. And it is an entirely new feeling for me. I think it was nice because it was validation that we had done well, and just honored what came before us with [Game of Thrones showrunners David Benioff and Dan Weiss] and with world, and we found the right tone and aesthetic — where to start the story and who to focus on — seemed to be backed up by the fans' response and the number of fans that showed up and watched...I think I came in going, 'Okay, let's try to make it even better.' But I think we can't lose sight of the things we did well in the first season."
The first season did a lot right, including introducing a large cast of compelling characters, casting them with great actors and parceling out a complicated story in ways that we could digest. Because the first season covered a large swath of time, there were time jumps between episodes, some of them very large; after a 10-year time jump in the middle of the season, select characters were recast with older actors.
Again, there was no guarantee that people would embrace this unusual structure, and Condal thanked the audience for going with it. "The time jumps were necessary in the first season because we had to cover 20 years of history," he said, noting that it's more like 30 years in Martin's book Fire & Blood; yes, the first season of House of the Dragon actually simplified things. "I have to credit the audience; that was a lot to ask of a new audience on a new show, and they went with it and they followed it and they got it...kudos to you guys, thank you."
The second season will open directly after the end of the first, with Rhaenyra Targaryen and her younger half-brother Aegon about to go to war over the Iron Throne. There will be no further time jumps. Whereas episodes in season 1 had to stand somewhat alone, Condal says season 2 "feels more like an eight-chapter novel."
Instead of sprawling across time, the second season will sprawl across space, as we travel to new corners of Westeros and meet lots of new characters. This war will embroil the entire continent of Westeros, and everyone will be under pressure to choose a side. See how the winds sway when the second season of House of the Dragon premieres on HBO and Max on Sunday, June 16.
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