George R.R. Martin announced on his personal blog that HBO’s “Game of Thrones” prequel series “House of the Dragon” has wrapped production on its debut 10-episode season. The series is set 300 years before the events of “Thrones” and stars Matt Smith, Emma D’Arcy, Olivia Cooke, Paddy Considine, Sonoya Mizuno and Rhys Ifans.
“Exciting news out of London — I am informed that shooting has wrapped for the first season of ‘House of the Dragon,” Martin wrote. “Yes, all 10 episodes. I have seen rough cuts of a few of them, and I’m loving them. Of course, a lot more work needs to be done. Special effects, color timing, score, all the post production work. But the writing, the directing, the acting all look terrific. I hope you will like them as much as I do.”
Earlier this week, HBO/HBO Max chief content officer Casey Bloys told Variety he wasn’t yet ready to announce when the series might premiere. “House of the Dragon” will air in 2022, but it remains a mystery when. Martin wrote in his blog post that he knows no details about the show’s potential premiere date.
“So when will you get to see it, you ask? When will the dragons dance? I wish I could tell you,” Martin wrote. “Lots of work remains to be done, as I said, and COVID makes planning difficult. This spring? Unlikely. Maybe summer? Could be. Fall? Who knows? You’ll know when we do.”
Martin wrote in a blog post in December 2021 that he had seen a rough cut of the pilot episode and loved it. “It’s dark, it’s powerful, it’s visceral… just the way I like my epic fantasy,” the author added. “[Executive producers] Ryan [J. Condal] and Miguel [Sapochnik] have done an amazing job, and the cast… just as with ‘Game of Thrones,’ most viewers will only have heard of a few of the actors, but I think you are going to fall in love with a lot of them.”
While Bloys could not tell Variety when “House of the Dragon” might premiere, he did confirm that it’s likely the show sticks around for more than just one season.
“If you’re betting on whether we’re going to do a second season, I think it’s probably a pretty good bet,” Bloys said. “Generally speaking, we usually let something air and see how it does, but obviously, we’ll make preparations ahead of time to make sure we’re ahead of the game.”