‘House of the Dragon’ Season 2 Plans: What to Expect

House of the Dragon came charging out of the gate with fire and blood, but it will be quite a while before the show swoops down on us again. The fantasy epic was renewed shortly after it premiered back in August, but Season 2 is not even in pre-production yet. Although it won’t air for over a year, you can check back here for the latest updates on the Game of Thrones prequel.

Fair warning: There will be spoilers for House of the Dragon Season 1 ahead! HBO has entertained pitches for many spinoffs of Game of Thrones and will continue to do so, but for now House of the Dragon remains the flagship series of Westeros. In spite of the sensational response to the Game of Thrones ending, House of the Dragon has been a huge hit, breaking ratings records and inspiring a fresh wave of fandom around the world. Hopefully, this dispelled network executives’ fears that audiences were not interested in returning to the Seven Kingdoms.

Unfortunately, the trepidation may be one reason Season 2 is still so far off. HBO may need to renegotiate some contracts in order to rehire the cast and crew, and then schedule time in the studios and filming locations. In general, greenlighting one season at a time always slows the production process.

At the time of this writing, the only hint we’ve gotten is that House of the Dragon Season 2 will premiere sometime in 2024. Scroll down for a breakdown of all the updates we’ve gotten so far.

Renewal

HBO announced its renewal of House of the Dragon on Aug. 26, 2022 – five days after the show premiered. This was not a huge surprise to anyone, but it was welcome news for the cast and crew as well as the fandom. HBO executive Francesca Orsi gave a comment on the big news.

“We are beyond proud of what the entire House of the Dragon team has accomplished with season one,” Orsi said. “Our phenomenal cast and crew undertook a massive challenge and exceeded all expectations, delivering a show that has already established itself as must-see-TV. A huge thank you to George, Ryan, and Miguel for leading us on this journey. We couldn’t be more excited to continue bringing to life the epic saga of House Targaryen with season two.”

Production Status

House of the Dragon will be returning to Spain for Season 2, where local newspapers are already reporting on the production status. They say that the cast and crew will be returning to those filming locations from March to June, when filming will presumably take place. The show could get some filming done elsewhere before that, but there have been no hints of it if so.

Some reports indicated that production would be underway sooner, but they seem to be outdated now. It’s worth noting that many of the CGI-heavy scenes for Season 1 were filmed in California at Warner Bros. Studios. With all the dragon-riding to come in Season 2, they will certainly need some help from the blue screens.

Timeline and Format

For those left scratching their heads at all the time skips in Season 1, rest assured that House of the Dragon will become easier to follow from here on out. Starting with Season 1, Episode 8, everything will be much more linear, with no more big jumps anticipated. That also means no more re-casting of characters.

Future Seasons

Back in August, House of the Dragon showrunner Ryan Condal said that he hoped to tell the full story of this civil war in three to four seasons. Author George R.R. Martin later said that he believed it would take at least four seasons to tell the story in its entirety. Not only are these hints about how long the show could go on, but they’re hints about how we can expect events to be paced from here on out.

After this story is complete, House of the Dragon may not be be over. Condal also told The Hollywood Reporter that he would be interested in keeping the series going but jumping forwards or backwards in Martin’s timeline to tell different parts of Targaryen history – for example, Aegon’s Conquest, or even the Doom of Valyria itself. He said that executives at HBO were tentatively interested in this pitch, but that nothing had been firmly decided of course.

However, fans have begun to speculate that HBO has made more of a commitment to House of the Dragons behind the scenes than they’ve announced publicly. Much of that speculation is based on star Matt Smith’s off-handed comments about future seasons, implying that he has seen material related to a possible Season 3. However, Smith could just as easily have been talking about the book itself, or perhaps an outline created by the writers for internal reference only.

Showrunner

House of the Dragon Season 1 featured writer Condal sharing showrunner duties with director Miguel Sapochnik, who oversaw on many fan-favorite episodes of Game of Thrones. Sapochnik announced that he would not be a co-showrunner again in Season 2, leaving that duty entirely in Condal’s hands. Sapochnik will remain on as an executive producer but is not expected to direct any more episodes himself. However, veteran Game of Thrones director Alan Taylor will be joining the show as an EP and director.

New Characters

The cast of House of the Dragon will be expanding substantially in Season 2, and will include many scions of noble Houses from the Seven Kingdoms besides House Targaryen itself. So far, none of these pivotal roles have been filled just yet, but fans may have caught the references to Lord Cregan Stark and Lady Jeyne Arryn in the Season 1 finale. We know at least that Jace flew north on his dragons to treat with those two houses, so we can expect to visit the Eyrie and Winterfell when the show returns.

We also heard about Daemon’s plan to take Harrenhal – the largest castle in Westeros where fans have not gotten to spend much time since Arya hid there in Game of Thrones. We will have all kinds of colorful characters in the Riverlands next season since its geographic centrality always makes it a bloody battlefront in times of war. Finally, Daemon also mentioned the possibility of training new riders for the remaining dragons on Dragonstone. Fans can look forward to brave souls trying their hand at dragon riding – for better or worse – in Season 2.

Future Plot

The House of the Dragon Season 1 finale made it clear that Westeros is going to war, and in many ways the lines have already been drawn. Fans who are interested in reading ahead can check out Martin’s book Fire & Blood in print, digital and audiobook formats. However, the books unreliable narrator means that things may not play out the same on screen as they do on the page.