Last month, A Song of Ice and Fire author George R.R. Martin wrote about how he "spent two days locked in a room" with the writers of House of the Dragon, the Game of Thrones prequel show based on his book Fire & Blood. The second season of House of the Dragon hasn't come out yet, but Martin and the writers were there to discuss the third and fourth seasons. “They were lively, fun discussions, and we got some good work done… though two days was not nearly enough. There is so much ground to cover that I am not sure twenty days would have been enough,” he wrote.
It's exactly a surprise to hear that HBO is working on future seasons of House of the Dragon -- the first was a big hit back in 2022, after all -- but they haven't made it official. This is in contrast to Amazon's strategy with fantasy shows like The Wheel of Time and The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power; in those cases, Amazon revealed early on that it was making multiple easons at once, before the first had even hit. HBO was more deliberate, waiting until it was sure that House of the Dragon was a success before ordering more episodes.
But they're going full steam ahead now. So says Redanian Intelligence, which is known to get good scoops on these kinds of things; according to RI, work on House of the Dragon season 3 will begin in earnest this month, January 2024.
Mind you, this doesn't mean that cameras are going to start rolling. The writers will move on from tossing around ideas and breaking down arcs to writing actual scripts, which will realistically take until around the end of the year. If everything goes smoothly, filming could begin near the end of 2024, or else in 2025. That probably means a third season will come along in 2026.
House of the Dragon season 2 comes out this summer. That means we'll likely be waiting another two years between seasons, which is a bummer. However, HBO doesn't intend to stay away from Westeros quite that long. Filming on another Game of Thrones spinoff, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, will reportedly start filming this year. The first season of that show would be on track to premiere in 2025.
So right now, here's what the schedule is looking like, assuming all of this information is accurate:
- Summer 2024: House of the Dragon season 2
- 2025: A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms season 1
- 2026: House of the Dragon season 3
I think I'd prefer a new season of House of the Dragon every year, but those dragons don't come cheap, and at least this way we won't have to go through too much withdrawal. I hope the schedule stays this simple; I wouldn't want the Game of Thrones universe to get overexposed. One season of TV a year sounds about right.
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