Westeros

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!

A press release touting all the new programs and films coming to HBO Max in August had a very interesting announcement:

We think this may be the first original series to get the 4K HDR treatment straight out of the gate on HBO/HBO Max.

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.

Yet more House of the Dragons content drops, as HBO Max releases this official trailer ahead of SDCC (where many expected it to be initially released):

Some really spectacular moments in this, especially our first real look at Caraxes, the Blood Wyrm, and what may well be Vhagar, the last survivor of the three dragons with which the Targaryens conquered the Seven Kingdoms.

Yes, we’ll be putting together a screen capture gallery with some commentary in a future post!

Hot on the heels of EW‘s exclusive, the Hollywood Reporter has published a two-part extravaganza from Fire Cannot Kill a Dragon chronicler James Hibberd (Part 1, Part 2 digging further into both the origins of House of the Dragon, its story and production, and the future of the show as well as other shows in the Game of Thrones universe.

Prince Daemon trying out his brothers chair.

The last few days have been jam-packed with House of the Dragon information, all of it leading to the big panel a San Diego Comic-Con, and the August 21st premiere of the show beyond that. The latest? A video from HBO giving us a behind-the-scenes glimpse of the show in production, with brief comments from show runners Ryan Condal and Miguel Sapochnik, and creator George R.R. Martin:

But what really kicked it of was Entertainment Weekly and its exclusive article from Nick Romano, who visited the sit and spoke extensively with the cast and crew of the show. Since that initial release, EW has been releasing more articles and photos on a daily basis, again leading up to the big SDCC premiere.

We’ve been in the midst of a vacation over here a Westeros, but George R.R. Martin has been keeping busy! A recent Not a Blog post goes into some length about the state of the highly-anticipated The Winds of Winter, a post which seems to have been prompted after a recent round of interviews (including this excellent interview by the team at Game of Owns). It’s the lengthiest update he’s given on the book in some years, and is well worth reading closely. And while he’s at it, George reveals how the story has been slowly moving further and further away from what he envisioned years earlier, even as late as when he met with the showrunners of Game of Thrones to discuss his plans.

HBO has announced which members of the House of the Dragon cast and crew will be present for the panel at Main Hall H during San Diego Comic-Con... and have now unveiled their plans for both an at-event special interactive experience for attendees and the release of an Augmented Reality game called House of the Dragon:DracARys (see what they did there?) for Android and iOs devices. See below for more information!

At “Not a Blog”, George R.R. Martin goes into some detail—as far as he’s able—as he confirms the news that a Jon Snow series is in development under the working title of Snow. In the process, he confirms that Kit Harington is the originator of the series (as revealed by Emilia Clarke in a recent BBC profile), that he and his own team of writers and consultants are working with Harington’s team, and that the project has actually been in development nearly as long as projects that we learned about last year rather than being a very new development.

There’s also some Winds of Winter information, as George notes that he was recently “back with Tyrion,” and GRRM also discusses his recent (misconstrued) remarks on The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power as well as continuing work on short films based on the works of the great Howard Waldrop.

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.

Rhaenyra Targaryen with a dragon looming over her.

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!

Via James Hibberd at The Hollywood Reporter, we’ve learned that Kit Harington is attached to star in Jon Snow spin-off series set after the end of Game of Thrones. Suffice it to say, the new has sent shockwaves through fandom, casual and hardcore alike. For our part, it doesn’t seem all that surprising, for the reasons laid out in Deadline‘s confirmation.

Jalic Blades, who among other things produce the Valyrian Steel line of A Song of Ice and Fire and Game of Thrones replicas, has just announced that tomorrow they will launch preorders for a replica of Blackfyre, the sword of Aegon the Conqueror and many of his heirs. It is a limited edition stainless steel sword, and that some time after they will also produce an even more limited Damascus steel version of the sword.

UPDATE: The even-more-limited Damascus edition is now available for pre-order as well.

Occasionally, we like to recommend works of fantasy to our fellow fans of A Song of Ice and Fire, and the upcoming release of All the Seas of the World by Guy Gavriel Kay (hits shelves on May 17th) is something we’d like to bring to our readers’ attention. Thanks to Kay and his publisher, Linda and I had the chance to read the novel early. Below, you’ll find Linda’s review of the novel (consider it co-signed by me!), but in brief: a compelling, beautifully poignant work from one of the finest authors working in the genre (and one of our very favorites in any genre!)

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.