Game of Thrones was a cultural phenomenon. It dominated conversation, and filled in some of the gaps that were left by the departure of The Sopranos and The Wire. Plus, it generated tremendous interest in the writing of George R.R. Martin as well as the acting talents of incredibly talented people like Emilia Clarke, Maisie Williams, Sophie Turner, Lena Headey, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau and Peter Dinklage, all playing significant characters across the show's eight seasons. The show is so major nowadays it’s easy to forget what a gamble this expensive epic of bloodlust, adultery, incest, dragons, and White Walkers must have been for the suits at HBO. Who knew if it was going to work? But work, it did, and that’s part of the reason why Dinklage is confident in the upcoming Game of Thrones prequel, even though he knows it’s bound to be quite different than the show he worked on for nearly a decade.
Peter Dinklage opened up about his time on Game of Thrones while appearing on an episode of Marc Maron’s podcast, WTF, and in the process offered up his opinion about the announced prequel series, House of the Dragon. The story will be set 200 years before the events of Game of Thrones, but it will dig deep into a history that Thrones fans will recognize - the downfall of House Targaryen. As for the content, Dinklage told Maron:
I have an opinion. I think it is going to be a really good show. The director and producer of it worked on our show, and I think it’s going to be really fucking good.
He’s talking about Martin, Ryan J. Condal, and Miguel Sapochnik – collaborators who had their fingerprints all over Game of Thrones (especially the strongest episode including Hardhome, The Battle of the Bastards, and The Bells). So Peter Dinklage knows, intimately, the approach that these storytellers will bring to The House of the Dragon, even though fans had a problem with the show's ending. Which is why, as he continued opening up to Marc Maron, he emphasized:
But, they took a risk on our show, HBO did. They took a huge risk on our show. It was a slow start, but why don’t they do that again? This isn’t a risk. It’s a proven thing that works.
He’s right about the fact that Game of Thrones took a while to find its largest audience, probably because no one really knew what to expect from the series as it worked its way through its first season. Hell, the first episode ended up with a brother and sister sleeping together, then trying to kill a child to hide its secret. Not quite a “gather the whole family together for an hour of television” type of programming. And we expect The House of The Dragon to push similar taboo envelopes when it debuts. Make sure you have your HBO Max subscriptions are up to date, because the show is coming in 2022 (at an undetermined date). But let’s give it a few episodes before we deem it or dismiss it as one of the best HBO Max shows airing now, or ever before.
