HBO has officially confirmed that it’s working on a Game of Thrones prequel show revolving around the Targaryens, called House of the Dragon.
Release Date
At the 2020 TCAs, HBO programming president Casey Bloys estimated that House of the Dragon would arrive in two years. “My guess is sometime in 2022,” he said, according to deadline. The creative team has already started writing, Bloys added.
It will be based on the George R. R. Martin book Fire & Blood.
Martin’s tome about the history of House Targaryen, originally released in November 2018, will serve as the source material for the upcoming series. The story begins 300 years before the events of Game of Thrones we know, and, according to its synopsis, it covers major battles like the Dance of Dragons (the Targaryen civil war) and the aftermath of the Doom of Valyria.
A part of the synopsis on Martin’s website reads …
“Centuries before the events of A Game of Thrones, House Targaryen—the only family of dragonlords to survive the Doom of Valyria—took up residence on Dragonstone. Fire and Blood begins their tale with the legendary Aegon the Conqueror, creator of the Iron Throne, and goes on to recount the generations of Targaryens who fought to hold that iconic seat, all the way up to the civil war that nearly tore their dynasty apart.”
Ryan Condal will write the Screen Play
Screenwriter Ryan Condal penned the former USA Network show colony, as well as the action films Rampage (2018) and Hercules (2014), both starring Dwayne Johnson. He’ll write the House of the Dragon series, which he created with Martin, and serve as co-showrunner with “Battle of the Bastards” director Miguel Sapochnik.
About House of Dragon
Days after it was revealed that HBO had ordered a pilot for House of the Dragon, news broke that the network is actually ordering a full, 10-episode series. HBO had already released the first promotional poster for the project, complete with a very Targaryen tagline: “Fire will reign.”
Bloys explained at the TCAs that the decision had to do with the source material. “[When] we looked at House of the Dragon, one of the advantages it had, was it had text from George R.R. Martin and had the Targaryen history,” he said, per The Hollywood Reporter. “There was a bit more of a roadmap. It was an easier decision to say, ‘Alright, let’s go straight to series.’ It wasn’t like there was anything glaringly wrong about the pilot; it’s just sometimes these things click and sometimes they don’t.”
Miguel Sapochnik helmed some of GoT‘s biggest battle episodes, including “Hardhome,” “Battle of the Bastards” (which won him an Emmy), “The Long Night,” and “The Bells” (the Season 8 battle at King’s Landing).
While serving as co-showrunner, he’ll direct the pilot, plus a few more episodes. This marks Sapochnik’s first project since signing an overall deal with HBO.
“The Game of Thrones universe is so rich with stories,” HBO programming president Casey Bloys said during an HBO Max unveiling. “We look forward to exploring the origins of House Targaryen and the earlier days of Westeros along with Miguel, Ryan and George.”
