As season one of House of the Dragon nears its conclusion in two weeks, George R.R. Martin revealed new information about the future seasons of the show. Luckily for fans, the author also shared information on how the anticipated civil war, ‘Dance of the Dragons’, will be portrayed on screen.
Martin updated his blog recently, where he praised Paddy Considine‘s performance as King Viserys and how episode eight was “everything I hoped it should be.” He then praised the show’s co-creator, Ryan Condal, for handling the time jumps and added how much he loves the cast of the show. He also wished that House of the Dragon could have explored other stories that were briefly mentioned in the show, such as the relationship between Princess Rhaenyra and Ser Harwin Strong, but were unable to due to time constraints.
“Do I wish we’d had more time to explore the relationship between Rhaenyra and Ser Harwin, the marriage of Daemon and Laena and their time in Pentos, the birth of various and sundry children (and YES, Alicent gave Viserys four children, three sons and a daughter, their youngest son Daeron is down in Oldtown, we just did not have the time to work him in this season), and everything else we had to skip? Sure.”
Martin commented on how television has been reducing the number of episodes per season but is grateful that this show was given enough screen time to tell his story. He also said if House of the Dragon received 13 episodes instead of 10, the show could have explored more stories during the ‘time jumps’ but worried that fans would complain that the show was too slow.
“If House of the Dragon had 13 episodes per season, maybe we could have shown all the things we had to “time jump” over… though that would have risked having some viewers complain that the show was too “slow,” that “nothing happened.” As it is, I am thrilled that we still have 10 hours every season to tell our tale.”
At the end of the blog, Martin explained how future seasons of House of the Dragon would play out, especially since the final seasons of Game of Thrones felt rushed and the show could have received a few more seasons to flesh out the story.
Martin believes that in order to portray the ‘Dance of the Dragons’ timeline with justice, the show will need four full seasons with 10 episodes each. He believes that having this many episodes and seasons would give the show plenty of breathing room to showcase the civil war from start to finish.
“As it is, I am thrilled that we still have 10 hours every season to tell our tale. (RINGS OF POWER has only 8, as you may have noticed, and my AMC show DARK WINDS is doing 6 episode seasons). I hope that will continue to be true. It is going to take four full seasons of 10 episodes each to do justice to the Dance of the Dragons, from start to finish.”
Episode nine of House of the Dragon will showcase the coronation of Prince Aegon, the son of King Viserys and Alicent Hightower, due to a misunderstanding that occurred at the end of episode eight. A teaser trailer revealed the pending conflict in Kings Landing and how this will be the start of the civil war between the Targaryen family.
Episode nine of House of the Dragon will come out on Sunday on HBO and HBO Max.