Spoilers below.
Game of Thrones might have run for eight seasons, but House of the Dragon will end at four.
Showrunner Ryan Condal announced the news to reporters today, following the HotD season 2 finale. Per The Hollywood Reporter, when asked whether the prequel would continue for five seasons, Condal clarified, “No, I think it’s four.” (However, HBO has not officially announced a season 4 renewal yet.)
This aligns with what George R. R. Martin predicted, Variety points out. Back in 2022, the author, whose book Fire & Blood is the source material for this show, wrote on his blog that it would take “four full seasons of 10 episodes each to do justice to the Dance of the Dragons [the Targaryen civil war], from start to finish.” Season 2, however, comprised of eight episodes. Condal anticipates that “the cadence of the show, from a dramatic storytelling perspective, will continue to be the same from season 2 on.”
Deadline previously reported in 2023 that the creative team saw the show running for three or four seasons. At the time, Condal and Martin, who is also an executive producer, had to “take a big-picture view of the series, which follows Martin’s Fire & Blood, and figure out the overall narrative flow, including how to break up the stories season-to-season and what battles to include and when,” co-editor-in-chief Nellie Andreeva wrote at the time.
“With a portion of the plot originally intended for season 2, including a major battle, moving to season 3, I hear it is now more likely that the series would run for four seasons,” she added. This is likely referring to the Battle of the Gullet, a major battle set up in season season 2 which doesn’t end up happening in the finale. Instead, it’s been pushed off to next season, to many fans’ frustrations.
Prep for season 3 is set to begin this fall and then production is slated for “earlyish 2025,” Condal says, per Variety. With the second season ending on a bit of a lull, there will be plenty of action to beef up the series’ next two installments. Watch this space for updates.
Watch House of the Dragon on Max
Erica Gonzales is the Senior Culture Editor at ELLE.com, where she oversees coverage on TV, movies, music, books, and more. She was previously an editor at HarpersBAZAAR.com. There is a 75 percent chance she’s listening to Lorde right now.