House Of The Dragon will return.
It’s almost as bloody as the Red Wedding. The merger of Warner Bros and Discovery has seen a raft of excellent shows cancelled at HBO, including the wonderfully weird Raised By Wolves—one of the best Sci-Fi shows on TV.
Reports that HBO is also losing a number of shows aimed at a more diverse audience thanks to the sacking of many employees of color are also hounding the company.
But it seems there are still some safe bets, or at least safer bets, and the Game Of Thrones spinoff House of the Dragon is safe for now, even if none of its characters are guaranteed to survive.
The prequel show, set nearly 200 years before the events of Game Of Thrones, is a story of succession (much like HBO’s most-lauded modern TV show, Succession). It debuted last Sunday to rave reviews, including my own.
I’ve seen the first six episodes of the show and while I’m mostly a big fan already, I do think it falls short of Game of Thrones in one key area: I just struggle to root for very many of the characters. I think you’ll see what I mean as the show goes on.
Still, it’s a fascinating slow-burn show about court intrigue, betrayal, patriarchy and ultra-violence. It goes very dark and I think there will be plenty of shocking moments in store for viewers.
HBO is clearly pleased with the show, which not only broke HBO’s series premiere records with a whopping 9.99 million viewers, but has since climbed to 20 million viewers in the US across linear, on demand and HBO Max platforms.
“We are beyond proud of what the entire House of the Dragon team has accomplished with season one,” says Francesca Orsi, executive vp, HBO programming via The Hollywood Reporter. “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 co-creator and executive producer George R.R. Martin and co-creator and showrunners Ryan Condal and Miguel Sapochnik] 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.”
HBO has been confident in Dragon from the very beginning, ordering it to series without a test pilot, in no small part thanks to George R.R. Martin’s persistence in bringing it to life.
At least seven other Game Of Thrones spinoffs are in the works, with four live-action and three animated series potentially coming to HBO in the future (though many will likely never make it that far). It seems likely that another 10 episodes will comprise Season 2, though it’s unclear if the show will continue with the same cast and story or if it will become an anthology at some point, with new tales from the Targaryen dynasty making up future seasons.
Whatever the case, it seems we have lots more Westeros to sink our teeth into. Perhaps someday it will be enough to wash away the bad taste of Game Of Thrones’ final season, or the bitter flavor of an incomplete A Song Of Ice And Fire.
My House Of The Dragon Writing (So Far)
Here are some of my articles on the show, though I will continue to write new content regularly.
You can check out links to all my socials and websites right here. As always, I appreciate you reading and following and sharing and being awesome all around people.
Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2022/08/26/house-of-the-dragon-renewed-for-a-second-season/