'House of the Dragon' Episode 1 Leaks Hours Before Series Premiere

By Michael Hein

The series premiere of House of the Dragon leaked on Friday night, bringing the franchise back to a persistent problem it faced during Game of Thrones. Many posts on Twitter indicate that some people have gotten access to a leaked copy of Episode 1, "The Heirs of the Dragon," though it's not clear how it got out. Fans are divided over whether or not to watch the show in this format.

House of the Dragon is one of the most highly anticipated TV events of the year, so it's no surprise that fans went looking for it a bit early. HBO sent out a surprising number of advance screeners to members of the press – the first five episodes at the beginning of the week followed by Episode 6 a few days later. Still, press screeners are carefully protected and watermarked with the name of the reporter they were sent to, so if that was how the show had leaked it wouldn't be hard to identify the source.

Some tweets claim that the show instead leaked via some kind of cyber attack on HBO. The network itself has not addressed the leak publicly, so there's no evidence there. At the time of this writing, it is still slated to premiere at its scheduled time at 9 p.m. ET on HBO and HBO Max.

Many fans said that they would not watch the leaked version of the episode, and they had various reasons. Many said they would rather wait for the high-quality release on their preferred interface, and others wanted to support the show in the hopes of making sure it is renewed. However, those that decided not to watch the leak were faced with a serious conundrum – how to navigate social media on Sunday without seeing any spoilers.

House of the Dragon already has an extremely active fandom on social media, comprised mostly of fans of George R.R. Martin's book series A Song of Ice and Fire. Those fans have likely read Fire & Blood, the book that House of the Dragon is based on, but because of the book's unique relationship with the show, there could still be major spoilers out there.

When Game of Thrones Season 8 aired in the spring of 2019, nearly every episode leaked within 36 hours of its scheduled airtime. The fandom faced similar temptation in those days, but some people hoped House of the Dragon would be different. We'll have to wait until next week to see if the trend carries on. You can watch House of the Dragon Episode 1 legally tonight at 9 p.m. ET on HBO and HBO Max.

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