Overview
Game of Thrones was always going to spark spinoff shows. Indeed, when HBO started thinking about doing a prequel five years ago, before the huge fantasy hit had even finished its run, it was hardly surprising. And, when the US network kept adding ideas to its list — including a Jon Snow-focused series with Kit Harington (Eternals) reprising his famous role, novella series Tales of Dunk and Egg and an animated GoT show, to name just a few prequels and spinoffs that've been considered, but may or may not actually come to fruition — absolutely no one was astonished.
So far, just one fellow GoT-related series has hit screens: House of the Dragon, which jumps back into House Targaryen's history. When it arrived in 2022, it became an instant success. Accordingly, it was quickly renewed for season two. But if you've been hanging out for the next part in its story, and hoping to see it in 2023, you might have to wait a little longer.
In an interview with Variety, HBO and HBO Max content CEO Casey Bloys has advised that viewers likely won't be returning to Westeros until sometime in 2024. He said that timing for House of the Dragon season two's debut "is a good guess", and that it probably won't be eligible for the Emmys held that year — which means that new episodes might be coming in winter Down Under, fittingly.
The first season also started screening and streaming during Australia and New Zealand's winter, so that'll mean a two-year gap — or thereabouts — between the show's maiden go-around and its second effort. And, it means thinking "winter is coming" to yourself all over again, amid pondering the GoT realm's relationships, flowing long blonde hair, dragons, stabbings and fights for the Iron Throne (whether or not you turn watching House of the Dragon into a drinking game, as we did).
The series kicked off 172 years before the birth of Daenerys and her whole dragon-flying, nephew-dating, power-seeking story, and gave HBO its largest American audience for any new original series in its history when it debuted. Yes, House of the Dragon is basically a case of new show, same squabbles, as it was easy to foresee it would be. Yes, it's pretty much Game of Thrones with different faces bearing now well-known surnames — and more dragons.
If you haven't yet caught up with the series, it dives into the battle for the Iron Throne before the one we all watched between 2011–19. Paddy Considine (The Third Day) plays King Viserys — and it's exactly who should be his heir that sparks all the Succession-style fuss. The words "succession" and "successor" (and "heir" as well) get bandied around constantly, naturally.
The king has a daughter, Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen (played by Upright's Milly Alcock, then Mothering Sunday's Emma D'Arcy), who is also his first-born child. But because putting a woman on the throne isn't the done thing, the King's younger brother Prince Daemon Targaryen (Matt Smith, Morbius) considers that spiky iron chair his birthright.
And, this wouldn't be Westeros if plenty of other people didn't have an opinion, including Ser Otto Hightower (Rhys Ifans, The King's Man), the Hand of the King; his own daughter Alicent (The Lost Girls' Emily Carey, then Slow Horses' Olivia Cooke); and Lord Corlys Velaryon (Steve Toussaint, It's a Sin), who is married to Princess Rhaenys Velaryon (Eve Best, Nurse Jackie), who had a better claim to the throne when Viserys was named king instead.
Also yes, this latest adaptation of George RR Martin's popular fantasy books is bound to continue on for more than just two seasons, but that's all that's confirmed for the moment.
Check out the full House of the Dragon trailer below:
House of the Dragon streams Down Under via Foxtel and Binge in Australia and SoHo, Sky Go and Neon in New Zealand. Read our full review of season one.
Via Variety. Images: Ollie Upton/HBO.