House of the Dragon officially renewed for season 3!

The second season of HBO's Game of Thrones prequel series House of the Dragon premieres this Sunday, June 16. Just the other day, showrunner Ryan Condal talked to Tech Radar about the prospect of more episodes beyond that, and he didn't sound sure it would happen. "We know where the story ends, where we want to get to [with each season], and the narratives we want to cover to get there," he said. "The full Targaryen history hasn't been written, but this part of it was completely written in 'Fire & Blood volume 1', so we have all of the information we need. We've had extensive conversations with [author George R.R. Martin], and there's a great advantage in knowing where it [the show] is going and where we want to take it."

"We'll keep moving, and it's a very nice thing to know where you're going because I think you make your storylines richer. And, we're writing season three right now. Obviously, we haven't been picked up for production yet but, as we did last year, we like to be ready when they [HBO executives] say yes... hopefully they will."

What a difference a day makes. HBO has confirmed that House of the Dragon has been officially renewed for a third season!

House of the Dragon boss has thoughts on how to end the show

These expensive fantasy dramas take a long time to make, so the sooner HBO renews the show, the better. During season 1, HBO didn't renew the show until after the first episode had aired. This time around, they're jumping the gun and renewing the show before the start of season 2. They must have confidence that it will be a hit with audiences; with their all-out marketing campaign, I can't imagine people won't at least tune in. Hopefully Condal and his team have laid enough groundwork that we won't have to wait multiple years for season 3.

The first season of House of the Dragon introduced us to characters like Rhaenyra Targaryen and her half-brother Aegon, who are now warring to determine which of them gets to sit the Iron Throne. As Condal mentioned, the show is based on George R.R. Martin's book Fire & Blood, which does tells us how this story ends. However, Condal and company have several options regarding where exactly to stop, and how to go about it.

Speaking to Radio Times, Condal said that he's "not thinking that far ahead" yet, although he knows that "sticking the landing is actually the most difficult thing" when it comes to a beloved TV series. Just ask David Benioff and Dan Weiss, who ended Game of Thrones with a season so divisive their pictures still comes up first in Google Images if you search for "bad writers." The pressure is on.

"[E]verybody by that point, many years on down the road, are going to have their own idea of where the show should and/or what it should be," Condal said. "And you can't satisfy all of those very specific ideas. You can't give them what they want. You have to give them the thing that they need. And that's our challenge as adapters, and, you know, I'm willing to take it on - but yes, it is... that lurks in the back of my mind, for sure."

Unlike the Game of Thrones guys, Condal and his team have the advantage of working with finished source material, so hopefully that'll help him sleep better at night. He said working on the second season has given him "some level of clarity" about how to end House of the Dragon. "And look, as I always say, there's a history that marches on for decades after this. So it's not about ending the Targaryen history. It's just finding the place to close the curtain on this particular time…We're trying to find the satisfying television ending or the conclusion where we can leave everybody knowing that time marches on from here, but we've brought this dramatic story to a close. So, I think that's become very clear as we've just gotten farther down the timeline."

"I'm not ready to yet talk about how many episodes or seasons are left. But I think the nice thing is we know where we're going, we have all the material that we need, because the book is written and hopefully we can bring this to a satisfying conclusion."

Based on the rate they're going, I'd guess House of the Dragon will run for four seasons before all is said and done. As for exactly where and how and when it will end, we have some ideas:

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