House of the Dragon

• 1. Introduction

  ›

  House of the Dragon premiered on the 21st of August 2022, and an estimated 9.99 million viewers in the United States watched its first episode on opening night. HBO said no series debut on its streaming service had ever drawn a bigger single-day audience. The record knocked Euphoria off the top spot. This was a fantasy drama set in the world of George R. R. Martin, yet it arrived without the characters, the faces, or even the era that fans knew from a series that ran from 2011 to 2019. So why would a network return to a world whose ending had already aired? What happens when the ruling family of an entire continent splits into two armed camps, each led by a close relative? And how do you film dragons, invent whole conversations in a made-up language, and keep a famous theme tune alive for a new story?

  194953

• 2. The Dance of the Dragons

  ›

  The Seven Kingdoms are united under a family of dragonriders, and that family is about to tear itself apart. The series opens about 100 years after the Targaryen conquest and 172 years before Daenerys Targaryen is born. Its central event is a devastating war of succession known as the Dance of the Dragons.

  King Viserys I is the fifth king of the Seven Kingdoms, played by Paddy Considine. A council of lords chose him to follow his grandfather, Jaehaerys I. He is known as "a warm, kind, and decent man."

  Rhaenyra Targaryen, played by Emma D'Arcy, is his firstborn child and heir apparent. She is the only surviving child of Viserys and his first wife, Queen Aemma Arryn. In her youth, played by Milly Alcock, she was praised as the "Realm's Delight."

  Alicent Hightower, played by Olivia Cooke, begins as Rhaenyra's childhood companion. She is raised in the Red Keep among the King's inner circle and is known as the comeliest woman at court. She later becomes the second wife and queen consort of Viserys, which makes her Rhaenyra's stepmother.

  The friendship ends over the throne. Alicent claims that Viserys changed his chosen successor with his dying breath. She then puts her own son, Rhaenyra's half-brother, on the throne as Aegon II, the sixth king. Rhaenyra's supporters, who are called the Blacks, crown her queen instead.

  Each side in that dispute commands something no ordinary army can match, which is a living dragon.

  415161713

• 3. Dragons and Riders

  ›

  Balerion is the dragon that King Viserys once rode, and Viserys was its last rider before it died. The dragons of the series carry on as characters in their own right, and most of them are bonded to a single member of the family.

  Rhaenyra is bonded to Syrax. Her uncle and second husband, Daemon, played by Matt Smith, rides Caraxes, nicknamed the "Blood Wyrm." Daemon earned the title "Rogue Prince" for his unpredictable behavior, and he wields a Valyrian steel sword called Dark Sister.

  Aemond Targaryen lost his left eye in a brawl with his nephews, so the court calls him "Aemond One-Eye." Ewan Mitchell plays him as a fearsome warrior who claims the old dragon Vhagar, known as the "Queen of All Dragons." His brother Aegon II, played by Tom Glynn-Carney, has a legendary reputation for hedonism on King's Landing's Street of Silk. Aegon rides the young dragon Sunfyre. Their sister Helaena rides Dreamfyre.

  On Rhaenyra's side, her eldest son Jacaerys, called Jace, is bonded to the young dragon Vermax. His father was Rhaenyra's first husband, Ser Laenor Velaryon. Rhaenys, an older cousin of Viserys and Daemon, flies Meleys, the "Red Queen." Daemon's elder daughter Baela rides the young Moondancer, while her sister Rhaena holds a dragon egg that has yet to hatch.

  The second season widens the circle beyond royalty. Hugh Hammer, a blacksmith in King's Landing, is struggling to care for his sick daughter when he reveals himself as a Targaryen bastard and a grandson of Jaehaerys I. He claims the dragon Vermithor, called "The Bronze Fury." Ulf White, who says he is a half-brother of Viserys and Daemon, claims the dragon Silverwing. Addam of Hull, a shipwright, is pursued by the dragon Seasmoke, who chooses him as his rider.

  Addam is a bastard son of Lord Corlys Velaryon, and his brother Alyn, a sailor, once saved Corlys's life in the Stepstones.

  13144255

• 4. Faces of the Court

  ›

  Lord Corlys Velaryon, played by Steve Toussaint, is known as "the Sea Snake" and is the most famous seafarer in Westerosi history. He rules Driftmark and heads House Velaryon, one of the wealthiest and most powerful families in the Seven Kingdoms. He serves Viserys as Master of Ships until he resigns, and he later becomes Rhaenyra's Hand of the Queen.

  His wife Rhaenys, played by Eve Best, carries the nickname the "Queen Who Never Was." She was once a candidate to succeed her grandfather as ruler. Her gender led the lords to pass her over in favor of her younger cousin Viserys.

  Ser Otto Hightower, played by Rhys Ifans, is Alicent's father and serves as Hand of the King under Viserys. Once his daughter became queen, he began plotting to put her eldest son, Aegon, on the Iron Throne instead of Rhaenyra. Under Aegon II, Ser Criston Cole replaces him as Hand.

  Criston Cole, played by Fabien Frankel, is a skilled swordsman from the Dornish Marches. He is the common-born son of the steward to the Lord of Blackhaven. Rhaenyra hand-picks him for the Kingsguard, and he later replaces Ser Harrold Westerling as Lord Commander after Aegon II takes the throne.

  Some of the most useful people at court hold no royal title. Mysaria, played by Sonoya Mizuno, begins as a foreign-born brothel dancer and becomes Daemon's paramour and trusted confidante before they part ways. She is later known as the "White Worm," leads a network of spies across King's Landing, and becomes Rhaenyra's advisor.

  Lord Larys Strong, played by Matthew Needham, is nicknamed "Clubfoot" because a birth abnormality makes him walk with a limp. He is Alicent's trusted confidant and serves as Lord Confessor, later becoming Aegon II's Master of Whisperers. He also succeeds his father as Lord of Harrenhal.

  Helaena Targaryen, played by Phia Saban, has a unique interest in bugs and often speaks in cryptic, prophetic language. She is also Aegon's sister-wife and the mother of his children.

  Two more nobles, Lord Jason Lannister and his younger twin Ser Tyland Lannister, are both played by the same actor, Jefferson Hall.

  3135365114

• 5. Road to a Prequel

  ›

  In 2015, with Game of Thrones still in production, HBO executives asked author George R. R. Martin about possible successors or spin-offs. In November 2018, Martin said any spin-off would be solidly based on material in his 2018 book Fire & Blood. Game of Thrones creators David Benioff and D. B. Weiss wanted to move on from the franchise and declined to take part.

  By September 2019, a prequel from Martin and Ryan Condal was close to receiving a pilot order. It was described as tracking the beginning of the end for House Targaryen. The following month, HBO skipped the pilot and ordered the series straight to production. Condal and Miguel Sapochnik became showrunners. Sapochnik had won an Emmy Award for directing the Game of Thrones episode "Battle of the Bastards."

  Two earlier ideas sit behind the project. In 2016, Condal pitched a series based on Martin's Tales of Dunk and Egg, and HBO initially passed. The final show is also a reworking of a rejected spin-off concept from Game of Thrones writer Bryan Cogman, which HBO officially passed on.

  The central inspiration came from English medieval history. In the 12th century, a war of succession called the Anarchy followed the death of Henry I of England. It set his nephew, Stephen of Blois, against his only surviving child, Empress Matilda, who had fled to Normandy.

  In January 2020, Casey Bloys, HBO's president of programming, said that writing had begun. The writers include Condal and Sara Hess, who previously wrote for Deadwood and Orange Is the New Black. Martin gave input on storylines and reviewed scripts and rough cuts.

  On the 26th of August 2022, less than a week after the premiere, HBO renewed the series for a second season. Five days later, Sapochnik stepped down as director and co-showrunner, though he stayed on as an executive producer. Alan Taylor, who had directed Game of Thrones episodes, joined for season two as an executive producer and director.

  8961718

• 6. Changes From the Page

  ›

  In the novels, House Velaryon is described as having "silver-gold hair, pale skin, and violet eyes," much like the Targaryens. Condal and Sapochnik wanted more racial diversity in the casting, because Game of Thrones had been criticized for lacking a diverse cast and for cultural stereotypes. The television Velaryons are therefore portrayed as black.

  According to Condal, Martin had himself considered making the Velaryons a house of black aristocrats who traveled to Westeros from the culturally diverse area of Valyria. Some fans criticized the change at first. Publications and commentators later said it helped viewers tell apart the many characters in the two families.

  Fire & Blood is written like a history book by a fictional in-world historian studying the Targaryen dynasty. The main novels of A Song of Ice and Fire work differently, with each chapter told from one character's close point of view. Some events in Fire & Blood are therefore second-hand accounts that may be speculative or distorted, which makes the narrator unreliable. To make the story clearer for viewers, the writers chose to show the events in chronological order from a third-person perspective.

  In 2025, Condal spoke to Entertainment Weekly about creative tensions with Martin over how to adapt Fire & Blood. He called their earlier collaboration "mutually fruitful" but said differences had grown over the show's narrative direction. The friction followed a blog post from Martin in September 2024, since deleted, that criticized changes made by Condal and HBO.

  Condal said he learned of the post secondhand and was disappointed. He defended the choices he made, including leaving the character Maelor Targaryen out of season two. He cited production limitations and the fact that Fire & Blood presents events as historical accounts rather than fixed canon.

  Condal also admitted that adapting such a sprawling story within the limits of television is hard, and he said he hoped for a reconciliation with Martin in the future.

  3537323943

• 7. Making the Series

  ›

  In October 2020, Paddy Considine was cast as Viserys I. By December, Olivia Cooke, Matt Smith, and Emma D'Arcy had joined as Alicent, Daemon, and Rhaenyra. In July 2021, Emily Carey and Milly Alcock were added as the younger versions of Alicent and Rhaenyra. For the third season, James Norton joined in January 2025 as Lord Ormund Hightower.

  Principal photography on the ten-episode first season began in April 2021, mostly in the United Kingdom. The Spanish publication Hoy reported that the crew would film in the Province of Cáceres in western Spain between the 11th and the 21st of October 2021. The city of Cáceres and the medieval town of Trujillo stood in for King's Landing. From the 26th to the 31st of October, filming moved to the Castle of Monsanto in Portugal.

  Cornwall supplied St Michael's Mount, Holywell Beach, and Kynance Cove. In Castleton, Derbyshire, the crew used Cave Dale, Eldon Hill Quarry, and the Market Place, and some scenes were shot in Aldershot, Hampshire. Most of season one was shot on Arri Alexa cameras, with Alexa 65s as the main cameras and Alexa Mini LFs as extras. Pixomondo, which had won an Emmy Award for visual effects on Game of Thrones, produced part of the effects work. HBO confirmed that season one wrapped in February 2022.

  Season two began filming on the 11th of April 2023 at Warner Bros. Studios, Leavesden, and moved to Cáceres on the 18th of May. Production continued through the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike, since the largely British cast works under the rules of the sister union Equity. Filming wrapped by the 29th of September 2023. Season three began on the 21st of March 2025 at Leavesden and wrapped by that October.

  Ramin Djawadi was announced as composer in February 2021. His Game of Thrones work had earned three Grammy nominations and two Emmy wins. He and the showrunners chose to keep the Game of Thrones theme, which first plays over the opening credits of the second episode. Djawadi told The A.V. Club the original theme was used to "tie the shows together." Character motifs from the earlier series return too, including the dragon theme "Dracarys."

  David J. Peterson, who created the constructed language High Valyrian for Game of Thrones, came back to continue his work. Unlike in the earlier series, this one has dialogue scenes spoken entirely in High Valyrian. Both Targaryens and Velaryons speak it, so cast members had to learn it. Emma D'Arcy reportedly enjoyed the task, while Matt Smith at first dreaded it and found it daunting.

  The first season cost nearly $200 million, just under $20 million per episode. Game of Thrones cost around $100 million per season. It began at nearly $6 million per episode in seasons one to five, rose to about $10 million in seasons six and seven, and reached up to $15 million per episode in its eighth. It earned $285 million in profits per season over its eight seasons. Deadline Hollywood reported that the marketing budget alone topped $100 million, comparable to a blockbuster theatrical film.

  6364678191

• 8. Audience and Rivals

  ›

  After one week, the premiere's audience in the United States had grown to nearly 25 million across all platforms. Nielsen estimated that 10.6 million people watched the episode on HBO Max in its first four days. Including the main HBO channel, that figure rose to 14.5 million.

  The second season debuted with 7.8 million viewers across linear and streaming, a 22% drop from the first season's debut. Latin America went the other way, with viewership up 30%. Samba TV counted 1.3 million U.S. households for the second premiere, compared with 2.6 million for the first. The week of the 17th to the 23rd of June 2024 was the show's biggest streaming week, with 1.23 billion minutes according to Nielsen.

  On Rotten Tomatoes, the first season holds a 90% approval rating from 875 reviews. Metacritic gives it 69 out of 100 from 43 critics. The second season holds 84% from 283 reviews and 73 out of 100 from 40 critics. Reviewers praised the character development, visual effects, writing, performances, and Djawadi's score. They criticized the pacing, especially the time jumps, and the dark lighting of some scenes.

  Press and fans also compared the show with The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power on Amazon Prime Video. Both are fantasy prequels, they arrived close together, and each has a huge fan base. Some commentators called the matchup the "biggest battle in TV history." Martin said he hoped both shows would do well but wanted to see House of the Dragon "succeed more." Lindsey Weber, an executive producer on The Rings of Power, called the rivalry "totally manufactured by the media for headlines."

  The Rings of Power cost almost $450 million more than House of the Dragon. Its first two episodes passed 1.25 billion streaming minutes after three days. A few hours after its own second episode, House of the Dragon had passed 1.06 billion. Nielsen data showed more than 70% of Rings of Power viewers were over 35. Its streaming audience shrank through its first season, while House of the Dragon's grew, and individual episodes kept gaining viewers for weeks. Commentators credited a steady release schedule for the social-media buzz around both.

  In 2023, House of the Dragon earned nine Primetime Emmy nominations, including Outstanding Drama Series, and won one, for Outstanding Fantasy/Sci-Fi Costumes. It also won the Golden Globe for Best Television Series - Drama in 2023. Emma D'Arcy was nominated for Best Actress in a Television Series - Drama in 2023 and again in 2025. The series won three British Academy Television Craft Awards and received three Critics' Choice nominations and two Screen Actors Guild nominations.

  A third season of eight episodes was set to premiere on the 21st of June 2026. In January 2026, Condal confirmed that the fourth season, expected in 2028, will be the last.

  321272847