House of the Dragon star Tom Glynn-Carney reportedly says season 3 will follow the books

The second season of HBO's Game of Thrones prequel series House of the Dragon wrapped up last month. It was a good watch, but we couldn't help but notice that showrunner Ryan Condal and his team made a LOT of changes to the source material: the book Fire & Blood by author George R.R. Martin. They made so many changes that Martin himself publicly criticized the show, something he never did during the eight seasons of Game of Thrones, which is based on his book series A Song of Ice and Fire.

As such, textual fidelity has been on the brain for House of the Dragon cast and crew members lately. Will the writers listen to Martin's criticisms and bring the upcoming third season more in line with the text? At this point, the show has changed so much I'm not sure that's possible, but actor Tom Glynn-Carney (King Aegon II Targaryen) is out here giving fans hope.

Glynn-Carney appeared on a panel this past weekend at the Rose City Comic Con in Portland, Oregon. The proprietor of the Tumblr blog @hotdaemondtargaryen was on hand and has the pictures to prove it. According to them, Glynn-Carney said that season 3 "will be following the books this time."

Now, this isn't an ironclad report, for a few reasons. For one, Condal and company are likely still writing the season, and even if they were done, I doubt Glynn-Carney would have seen scripts this soon; Condal himself has said that filming won't begin until "earlyish 2025," with signs pointing to March. But hey, he knows a lot more than me. Maybe he's seen signs that season 3 will stay truer to the book.

Then again, he reportedly also said that we could "potentially" be seeing scenes between Aegon and his rival Rhaenyra Targaryen "soon," which doesn't jive with the book at all. At the end of season 2, Aegon has just fled King's Landing while Rhaenyra makes plans to invade the city. The two do eventually meet up in Fire & Blood, but it's not for a good long while. If they're meeting sooner rather than later, it would be another huge departure from the source material.

Then again, departures from the source material are kind of the name of the game on House of the Dragon; witness the multiple meetings between Rhaenyra Targaryen and Alicent HIghtower in season 2, none of which happen in the book. So I don't think we can draw many firm conclusions from what Glynn-Carney is saying here.

On a lighter note, Glynn-Carney also reportedly said that he likes to drink Guinness with Matt Smith (Daemon Targaryen) during breaks. That's a fun little factoid to take your mind off the fact that we probably won't be watching new episodes of House of the Dragon until 2026.

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