House of the Dragon finished its second season back in the 2024 TV schedule with a finale that provided the show's strongest tie to Game of Thrones, with members of the Targaryen family tree still hoping to trim off a few enemy branches. With eight episodes from start to finish, Season 2 ended two shy of Season 1's ten-episode run, without the expected Battle of the Gullet as a climactic final act. HBO will evidently make up for that with the beginning of Season 3, with the network's Head of Drama Series and Films Francesca Orsi promising big things... or, as the case happens to be, Titanic-level things.
Readers of George R.R. Martin's Fire & Blood likely expected an grand sea battle to end the second season on a much grander scale than the Blood and Cheese tragedy of the premiere. I won't get into major spoilers here for the sake of non-readers, but it would have been an epic way to leave fans of the Blacks and/or the Greens hanging over hiatus. According to HBO exec Francesca Orsi, the delay for the Battle of the Gullet will pay off in House of the Dragon Season 3. Orsi told Deadline:
You know what, it was worth the wait. I was just on set and saw all the elements and what was behind it. I’m so glad we waited because it’s going to be better than ever, and I don’t think we had the time at that point to do what it is that we’ve achieved now this season.
Season 2 had a pretty epic battle with Rook's Rest and the death of Rhaenys, but it sounds like the Battle of the Gullet will be on a totally different scale. (You can revisit Rook's Rest and the rest of Season 2 streaming with a Max subscription now.) Personally, I'm encouraged by the fact that it sounds like there will be some practical effects to this battle, with Orsi impressed by what she saw on set.
Sure, the dragons in House of the Dragon will undoubtedly have to be primarily CGI, but the HBO exec's comments about bringing in a Titanic vet lead me to suspect that there will be some fun practical elements. Orsi said:
It’s just so massive, we needed the time to build it. One of the lead producers on it [Kevin de la Noy] worked on Titanic, so all that he brought in terms of acumen of what happened on the Titanic and how that entire experience is built, he brings that expertise to it.
Considering how impressive 9-1-1's tsunami crisis was with its Titanic touch back in 2019 on network TV without an HBO-level budget, hopefully the Battle of the Gullet delay giving the producer extra time will pay off. Plus, as a reader of Fire & Blood who is looking forward to the Gullet, I'm not mad about the delay. Despite Season 2 ending with more of a whimper than a dragon-fueled bang, Season 3 starting on an epic scale sounds pretty good to me.
Besides, for as much as Blood and Cheese was softened from Fire & Blood, there's no way that the aftermath of this battle won't be pretty juicy to play out, perhaps with better momentum than if it had been immediately followed by a hiatus. Of course, even non-readers can guess that there's plenty more bloodshed beyond just this one battle in the war between the Greens and the Blacks, and I can't help but wonder how other battles – such as the Battle of the Honeywine after a key player was recently cast – will come across in comparison.
With production on Season 3 not yet begun, it'll be a while before fans will likely see any finished footage from any upcoming battle. A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms will arrive as the next Game of Thrones spinoff as part of the 2025 TV schedule, though, so HBO will be going back to the world of Westeros before the end of the year.
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