Well that was a wild 24 hours, wasn’t it? The backlash over David Benioff and Dan Weiss’s Austin Film Festival panel hit a fever pitch, followed by the announcement that their planned Star Wars trilogy is kaput. Then Jane Goldman’s prequel series about the first Long Night was canceled (funnily enough without the same multi-million dollar offer to just re-shoot that Benioff and Weiss received). Finally, last night in the late hours of the East Coast, the news came down. House of the Dragon is a go on HBO.
The series will begin 300-years before the events of Martin’s main series, when Aegon Targaryen and his sisters, Visenya and Rhaenys, used their dragons to conquer the disparate kingdoms of Westeros and bring them all under the Targaryen banner. The series will follow the events of Martin’s Fire and Blood history books, covering the reign of the Targaryens, with the ultimate goal being to reach the infamous Dance of the Dragons which pitted Targaryen against Targaryen and ended in the crowning of Aegon III, which led to the extinction of dragons until Daenerys Targaryen hatched her three dragons on the Dothraki Sea. Will it reach this far? We will see. Personally I find this concept to be more interesting than the Long Night prequel. Unfortunately, Game of Thrones destroyed any credibility the White Walkers needed to make any Long Night series interesting.
Acclaimed Thrones director Miguel Sapochnik will direct the first episode, along with others, and serve as co-showrunner alongside Ryan Condal of Colony fame. George RR Martin himself also gave a heavy hand in creating the series and will be directly involved in some capacity. So, you know, there’s some promise here. The Targaryens can be divisive among fans of A Song of Ice and Fire but there’s no doubt about the potential drama rife throughout their time ruling the Seven Kingdoms.
Here’s hoping this one turns out a bit better than Game of Thrones did. The entire IP could use a boost right now.
