Just hours after the shocking news dropped that Game of Thrones had axed its star-studded prequel spinoff set to star Naomi Watts, HBO announced that an entirely different spinoff has landed a series order. The series will follow none other than House Targaryen, and there are reasons to expect lots of dragons. Fire will reign! Here's what's happening.
The first Game of Thrones spinoff to receive a series order from HBO will be called House of the Dragon. The action will take place 300 years before the events of Game of Thrones and follow the events of George R.R. Martin's Targaryen-centric book, called Fire & Blood. House of the Dragon received a straight-to-series order for ten episodes on HBO. There were still dragons around 300 years prior to Game of Thrones thanks to the surviving Targaryens, so count on some more of those in the new show! Also, incest. Probably lots of incest.
House of the Dragon was co-created by Ryan Condal of Colony and A Song of Ice and Fire author George R.R. Martin, with Condal and Game of Thrones alum Miguel Sapochnik serving as showrunners. With Martin participating and Sapochnik (who directed some of the most epic Thrones episodes with "Battle of the Bastards" and "The Long Night," among others, to his name) on board, I'd call this a recipe for spinoff success. Take a look at the art for the spinoff!
Fire will reign indeed! As A Song of Ice and Fire readers know well, the Targaryen dynasty began before those novels began, when Aegon Targaryen and his sisters/wives flew on their dragons to conquer Westeros. Fire & Blood actually only covers the first half of the Targaryen dynasty, so there's no need to worry that House of the Dragon will outpace the source material, especially if the show covers the conquest rather than just the Targaryens already established in Westeros.
Unlike the A Song of Ice and Fire books, Fire & Blood is more of a fictional history book than a novel, and a whole lot of info is packed into it. As long as House of the Dragon doesn't introduce and kill off one Targaryen ruler per episode, the spinoff shouldn't run into the same issue that Game of Thrones did when showrunners David Benioff and Dan Weiss ran out of books. Could this be a way to retroactively justify the incest between Jon and Dany on Game of Thrones?
We'll have to wait and see. HBO hasn't revealed even a premiere window for House of the Dragon, so it could be quite a while before viewers get to see House Targaryen a few centuries before Game of Thrones kicked off with only two major Targaryens in the mix, as Maester Aemon really didn't count and Jon still thought he was a Snow.
Hopefully the wait for House of the Dragon won't be too long, but if it's anywhere near the scale of Game of Thrones, episodes can't exactly be filmed in a couple of weeks each. Hey, maybe George R.R. Martin will get around to finishing and publishing The Winds of Winter to help Game of Thrones and A Song of Ice and Fire fans to pass the time! If you want a peek at what's in store with House of the Dragon, you can check out Fire & Blood now.
