Westeros

The 'A Song of Ice and Fire' Domain

News

House of the Dragon

Contest: Attend the European Premiere of House of the Dragon

We’ve an exciting opportunity for fans of Game of Thrones who are excited about the forth-coming House of the Dragon! Thanks to HBO Max Netherlands, we have a number of tickets that we’re giving away to attend the European premiere of House of the Dragon on August 11th. The event will be a grand affair taking place at the Beurs van Berlage in Amsterdam, featuring members of the cast and crew as well as the Dragon’s Den, a unique interactive experience that will open first for guests of the premiere before opening for the general public on the 12th and 13th of August. We’ll post some more of the official information below, but the essential point is… how do you enter the contest? See below!

Click for full-sized image
Before the Dance: New Video Has George R.R. Martin Narrating

A pleasant surprise today, as the official Game of Thrones channels dropped a new video, this time a rather unique one as it had George R.R. Martin narrating the history of the Targaryens (as well as the Hightowers and Velaryons) that leads up to the time of The House of the Dragons, with animated graphics from none other than artist Doug Wheatley, the illustrator of Fire and Blood.

Very interesting that the Hightowers get a little bit of focus in this video. The Velaryons are to be expected, of course, although an interesting thing we noticed about this video is that it only mentions the marriage of Corlys to Rhaenys as one of the ties the families have to one another, when of course Aegon the Conqueror and his sisters had a Velaryon mother. It’s a short video, but since Aegon and the Conquest was mentioned, it seemed like a detail they could have slipped in there if they wanted to.

The Complete Guide to House of the Dragon

On August 2nd, The Complete Guide to House of the Dragon will hit shelves across the country, a one-of-a-kind deep dive into the forthcoming HBO series. Among it’s many features? A lengthy exclusive interview with George R. R. Martin, discussing the show, it’s origins in Fire and Blood and The World of Ice and Fire, and more!

Click for full-sized image
Extended Trailer and Behind the Scenes Videos Released

HBO has released two new videos today. The more interesting of the two is the later one, a behind-the-scenes video titled “Returning to Westeros”:

Some really interesting footage, particulary of Laena’s actress riding her dragon and then a sort of realtime pre-viz showing roughly what the shot will look like. Some real high technology going into the show! And of course, as already mentioned, the fact that they’ve built a massive Red Keep set with interlocking rooms so that one can do a “walk-and-talk” through various levels, rooms, and corridors—rather than the more economical approach of cutting away and showing only absolutely necessary rooms with one or two hallways being redressed to serve as multitudes—is impressive. Finally, you’ll catch more than a few glimpses of the sons of Alicent and Rhaenyra in the course of this

See the extended trailer below, which has a bit of added footage from the recently released full trailer!

House of the Dragon Trailer Gallery

As promised, we’ve put together a gallery of over thirty images from across the brand new trailer, images selected because we’ve some relevant details about what’s shown, or just because we wanted to highlight something. You can see the slideshow of images below! Note that almost all links go to the Wiki of Ice and Fire, which contain spoilers if you’re not familiar with Fire and Blood.

Click for full-sized image
House of the Dragon Poster, More Day of the Dragon Merchandise

As the Warner Bros Shop announces “The Day of the Dragon”, HBO gets on board by releasing a brand new poster featuring the young Rhaenyra Targaryen in full regalia with a dragon looms behind her, and a few other licensed products start to make their way out of the gate—including two beers from Danish craft brewer Mikkeller, a set of wines from Vintage Wine Estates, and another set of wines from Australia’s Treasury Vintage Wines.

Click for full-sized image

Rhaenyra Targaryen with a dragon looming over her.

WB Shop Announces “Day of the Dragon”, House of the Dragon Merchandise

Today sounds like an exciting day for eager House of the Dragon followers, as the Warner Bros. Shop names today, June 22nd, the “Day of the Dragon” and has dropped a large collection of House of the Dragon merchandise on the new shop, including a limited edition bomber jacket that looks very smart, as well as a few bits-and-bobs from Game of Thrones (including Sansa’s crown!)

Below you’ll see the limited edition bomber jacket, and click through to the full article for the press release from Warner Bros. as well as a slideshow gallery featuring a number of the new items that can be ordered or pre-ordered!

Click for full-sized image
New Peek at House of the Dragon

The official House of the Dragon twitter account woke up today with a few tweets and new character posters (more on those below)... but all that led up to the release of an official teaser trailer:

It’s a pretty epic trailer (if, concerningly, rather dark and desaturated) featuring all the chief characters, a Red Keep in the midst of renovation or expansion, Kingsguard, gold cloaks, violence, the Great Council at Harrenhal… and of course, dragons. Besides the new trailer, HBO also released a number of brand new character posters featuring key characters, which you can find below.

Click for full-sized image
House of the Dragon Budget Under $20 Million Per Episode

A new report from Variety shares a piece of information from an anonymous “production insider”: the 10 episode first season of House of the Dragon managed an average per episode budget somewhat under $20 million. This is cited as a great achievement given rising production costs and the greater number of dragons that will need to be CGed in the series. Variety reports:

[T]he production insider says HBO is now so adept at these world-building series through years of not just GoT, but also producing Westworld”and His Dark Materials, that the team can make a high-quality series as efficiently and effectively as possible.

By way of comparison, the final season of Game of Thrones cost somewhere in the vicinity of $15 million an episode.

Click for full-sized image
House of the Dragon Premieres August 21, 2022

A dragon egg on the verge of hatching accompanies the announcement from HBO that House of the Dragon will premiere on August 21st of this year. Along with the poster, HBO has also sent out eight new images featuring a variety of characters from the series, that you can see below.

With a ten episode run, that means it’ll end on October 23rd… just two days prior to the release of The Rise of the Dragon. Interesting timing, that… For more on this informational art book that very much ties in to the events covered by House of the Dragon, see here.

Click for full-sized image
GRRM Updates Fans on Multiple Projects

Over at Not a Blog, George R.R. Martin has provided fans a lengthy update on The Winds of Winter, HBO’s successor shows, and more… and in the process lets the cat out of the bag regarding one project we here at Westeros.org have been working on for the last couple of years.

We’ll provide a quick summary below:

Click for full-sized image

The Three Chroniclers, by Chase Stone.

Fire and Blood Tie-ins to House of the Dragon

Random House has revealed their publishing plans for the summer, and fans have noticed that July seems particularly stacked with House of the Dragon tie-ins using Fire and Blood as the focal material.

First, Random House revealed that on July 12th they will publish tie-in editions of Fire and Blood that will feature a cover using photography from House of the Dragon. Second, Random House announced that the 2023 A Song of Ice and Fire Calendar, to release on July 19, will be based entirely on Fire and Blood. And, in a departure from the previous calendars, this will feature an array of artists rather than just one. No word yet as to who has contributed.

Fans may notice these July dates, and speculation has run that the dating relates to the as-yet-unannounced premiere of House of the Dragon.

[Affiliate links to Amazon.com can be found in this post)]

Click for full-sized image
HBO Exec on House of the Dragon and Other Projects

A sit-down with various media outlets has provided some fresh information from Casey Bloys, HBO’s and HBO Max’s chief content officer, regarding the future of the Game of Thrones franchise, from the release date of House of the Dragon to the status of a number of projects in development. While there’s nothing really concrete, the one thing Bloys committed to is that House of the Dragon is definitely airing this year, but that the conversation has only just now started thanks to the show officially wrapping.

We’ll provide a brief bullet point of the main information that came out of the interview with Bloys:

Click for full-sized image
New Book Gives Insights on HBO’s Game of Thrones

A new book released today, James Andrew Miller’s Tinderbox: HBO’s Ruthless Pursuit of New Frontiers, is a massive 1,000 page tome that looks at the rise of HBO as the destination for prestige television from the past and all the way to the present. In the course of it, of course, the book can’t but help touch on Game of Thrones. While it covers ground already revealed in past interviews and books (such as James Hibberd’s Fire Cannot Kill a Dragon), there’s a few new details… particularly from a voice fans have not heard before, George R.R. Martin’s long-time entertainment agent, Paul Haas, concerning the final season and its relation to GRRM’s plans for A Song of Ice and Fire.

[Note: This post contains Amazon.com affiliate links.]

Click for full-sized image

George R.R. Martin in the Eyrie on the set of Game of Thrones.

Miguel Sapochnik Talks House of the Dragon

In an exclusive interview with The Hollywood Reporter‘s James Hibberd, co-showrunner and director Miguel Sapochnik offers a bit of insight into House of the Dragon, assuring viewers that the show honors Game of Thrones while at the same time being its own thing, with its own story to tell and its own tone.

Click for full-sized image

One of the quotes from Sapochnik in more detail: ‘I think we were very respectful of what the original show is. It wasn’t broken so we’re not trying to reinvent the wheel. House of the Dragon has its own tone that will evolve and emerge over the course of the show. But first, it’s very important to pay respects and homage to the original series, which was pretty groundbreaking. We’re standing on the shoulders of that show and we’re only here because of that show. So the most important thing for us to do is to respect that show as much as possible and try and compliment it rather than reinvent it. And I was involved in making the original show, so I feel like that’s been useful. Like, I’m not arriving going, “Let’s change everything! Let’s do a different color palette!” No, I quite like the color palette.’