Still feeling The Hound-level burned by thatGame of Thronesfinale? Don’t worry - HBO’s prequel seriesHouse of the Dragonwill be here (relatively) soon to try and help you forget Tyrion’s weird speech about stories.
In an interview with Deadline (viaThe Verge), HBO President of ProgrammingCasey Bloyssaid to expect the show, “…sometime in 2022. They are starting writing.”
House of the Dragonis being written byRyan Condal, based on the bookFire and BloodbyGeorge R.R. Martin. Set 300 years before the events ofGame of Thrones, the series will focus on House Targaryen, the dragon-riding ancestors of hero-abruptly-turned-villain Daenerys. Condal will be serving as showrunner alongsideGoT’sMiguel Sapochnik, with the pair also executive producing withGame of Thronesexecutive producers Martin and Vince Gerardis.
Bloys also shed some light on what exactly happened with the much-publicized cancellation of theGoTspinoff series that had filmed a pilot episode starring two-time Academy Award nomineeNaomi Watts,and would have been a completely original story set 8,000 years before the series. “…it was a big challenge but there was nothing that I would point to and say, oh, that one element did not work, just overall it did not quite gel. That’s one of the reasons when we started out to think about ‘Is there a life afterGame of Thronesin terms ofGame of Thrones’, we purposefully developed multiple projects. We would have been very lucky to do one pilot, have that pilot go and be a success but in development as you know, it takes a lot of tries to get it right, this is no different.”
That also means that the three other plannedGoTspin-offs (yes, three) are currently on hold, perhaps indefinitely. “For me for right now, I think gettingHouse of the Dragonon the air will be the number one priority,” Bloys said. “There are no other blinking green lights or anything like that. Sometime down the road who knows, but there are no immediate plans. We are all focusing onHouse of the Dragon.”
It remains to be seen whether viewers will be eager to return to Westeros after the extremely divisive series finale (and whether Martin will manage to finish a single book before HBO develops an entirely new series). Maybe the wounds will have healed by the time 2022 rolls around. For more on Game of Thrones, check outthe best memes & jokesfrom that dragonpoop finale and readour ranking of every seasonfrom worst to best.
