HBO cancelled the Long Night prequel series that Naomi Watts and company have spent the past year filming the pilot. In its stead, HBO has instead ordered to series House of the Dragon.
Based on Fire and Blood, House of the Dragon is the chronicle of Targaryen rule of Westeros. If you haven’t read the book, it’s as thick and juicy as English history. There’s no shortage of succession intrigue, civil wars, unruly daughters, horrific plagues, uprisings and rebellions, and good ol’ dragon-vs-dragon combat.
Ryan Condal and Miguel Sapochnik will executive produce and serve as showrunners.
I’m looking forward to it. I stalled out in the book during the dragon wars that happen that are fairly boring, but up to that point, I had really enjoyed the book. It’s precisely the sort of birds-eye view type writing about historical events that would actually really benefit by someone actually fleshing the details out into an actual drama. The book is a good core skeleton to hang the series on.
I have to admit, this one seems like it could be pretty fun and interesting, so I’m in. My son loves the Targaryen’s so he’s excited as well, and I like how @Rock8man frames it - high level details fleshed out into a drama could be just the treatment this material needs. I’m in.
Ryan Condal has already done a considerable amount of writing on HOUSE OF THE DRAGON, but a lot of work remains ahead of us. There’s a writer’s room to be assembled, episodes to be broken down and scripted, a cast and crew to be assembled, budgets and production details to be worked out. As yet, we don’t even know where we will be shooting… though I expect we will revisit at least some of the countries David & Dan used for GAME OF THRONES (Ireland, Iceland, Scotland, Croatia, Morocco, Malta, and Spain). I expect to be involved in all of this to some extent… and, who knows, if things work out, I may even be able to script a few episodes, as I did for the first four seasons of GAME OF THRONES.
But… let me make this perfectly clear … I am not taking on any scripts until I have finished and delivered WINDS OF WINTER. Winter is still coming, and WINDS remains my priority, as much as I’d love to write an episodes of HOUSE.
Apparently they’re not going chronologically, because no way they cast these characters as adults and cover the Conquest, Aegon’s years as king, Maegor, Jaehaerys, etc. Which means if season 1 deals with the Dance, season two likely slides into Aegon IV and either depicts or sets up the Blackfyre rebellion. Or am I missing something here?
Is this going to be a long series, or is this a more limited release one-off? It sounds like it’s based on a single book, so it could be 10 episodes and done? Maybe there’s enough in the original book for multiple seasons?
