House of the Dragon showrunners Miguel Sapochnik and Ryan Condal share inside details about pitching Game of Thrones‘ followup shows. GOT was a massive hit for HBO that was then marred by its season eight ending, putting its future in a precarious position as they worked to find the right successor.
Sapochnik and Condal spoke to The Hollywood Reporter and revealed what the pre-production process was like. Sapochnik spoke about HBO’s motivations and how he feels about the original series.
“At first HBO was like, ‘How can we subvert [Thrones]?’ The Dance of Dragons felt like an obvious straight-down-the-line prequel. So I think they were less hot on it because it was like, ‘Well, who wants to see more Game of Thrones?’ And then the irony, of course, is: lots of people.”
Sapochnik directed several GOT episodes and they happen to be among the best of the series. “Hardhome” and “The Battle of the Bastards” were two epic episodes that had major consequences for the story and its characters, but they know the tall order of matching GOT and plan on bringing something different to House of the Dragon.
Condal discussed the decision to first attempt The Long Night series titled Bloodmoon which didn’t end up coming to pass.
“The desire at HBO was to not just offer up a sequel that’s about the war for the throne. They wanted to do something so totally different that it would blow everybody’s minds. I think that’s why they went with The Long Night instead.”
Bloodmoon was set even earlier than House of the Dragon, before there were even dragons, and featured a more primitive society. The pilot focused on the wedding of a Southern house and a Northern house, and was meant to tell the origin story of the White Walkers.
Naomi Campbell was set to star in it and $30-$35 million had already been shot, but ultimately, the task was too large, having to build a story without the proper material. An insider reportedly said Game of Thrones creator George R.R. Martin didn’t understand making a show that was pure invention.
House of the Dragon seems to be the ideal answer to HBO’s expectation of a show similar in tone that also subverts the series. Condal has said that the Targaryen sigil honors where Daenerys left off, meaning threads from the original series will still be explored in the prequel.
House of the Dragon comes to HBO Aug. 21.
