Westeros

Variety has a report drawn from a longer profile of HBO and HBO Max content CEO Casey Bloys. In it, Bloys suggests that summer 2024 is a good guess for when the second season of House of the Dragon would air. Like the season before it, this second season is due to start in March, and as we know from that first season it wasn’t until August of the following year that the season premiered, so this seems in line with expectations.

Bloys also goes on to make comments on more Game of Thrones spin-offs:

Half way through the season, and “The Princess and the Queen” makes the boldest jump yet as a decade has passed since the previous episode, new actors play key roles, and a passel of new young characters appear. Linda and I return with with our usual non-review focus on providing some more background information and changes from the source material to the screen. Lots of background in this particular episode:

Ser Laenor supports Princess Rhaenyra as she’s called to present the newborn Prince Joffrey to the queen.

This tweet says it all:

Over at The Hollywood Reporter, James Hibberd provides a bit more detail, citing HBO’s report that in the US the show has cleared over 20 million viewers since the premiere, the kind of strong opening they were hoping for.

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.

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.

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:

The Three Chroniclers, by Chase Stone.

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:

Via a report in Variety, we’ve learned that Steve Conrad—creator of Amazon’s Patriot and other shows—has been attached as lead writer and executive producer of a potential (emphasis on the potential) Game of Thrones-universe hour-long series based on the Dunk and Egg novellas [Note: Amazon affiliate link].

To date, three novellas introducing readers to Ser Duncan the Tall and Egg have been published, with a fourth existing in a partial state. Beyond that, George R.R. Martin revealed substantial hints about the future of the two characters as planned in additional novellas in our own The World of Ice and Fire, sketching out Dunk’s and Egg’s history all the way through their deaths.

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.]

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

Creation Entertainment and Warner Bros. Themed Entertainment have announced an official Game of Thrones fan convention to be held in Las Vegas, Nevada at the Rio Hotel & Suites Convention Center on February 18-20, 2022. This is the first ever official convention for the show, and promises to have many guests, panels, and events, as well as merchandise for sale.

We’ve placed the full press release below:

Deadline Hollywood has the scoop: Amanda Segel (Person of Interest, Helstrom) is tackling 10,000 Ships, one of several Game of Thrones successor-shows that HBO has in the works according to reports from March. This project would feature Princess Nymeria, the legendary leader of the Rhoynar who led them from their flight from the conquering Valyrians and their dragons and ultimately established a new home when she wed Lord Mors Martell and unified Dorne. Notably, due to the death of many the men among the Rhoynar in Garin’s war, Nymeria’s fleet of ships was dominated by women, suggesting this show’s cast would be the most likely to be predominantly-female.

Most of what we know regarding Nymeria and the Rhoynar comes from our own The World of Ice and Fire (affiliate link).

After a deal of footage has made its way to the internet from photographers with long lenses, HBO has now released to media images of some of the costumed lead performers from House of the Dragon. These feature Emma D’Arcy and Matt Smith as Rhaenyra Targaryen and Daemon Targaryen, Steve Touissant as Corlys Velaryon, and Olivia Cooke and Rhys Ifans as Alicent Hightower and her father Otto Hightower. See the images below, with some comments.

Emma D’Arcy as Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen” and Matt Smith as Prince Daemon Targaryen. Typical Targaryen looks, as expected. Rhaenyra’s costuming fits the description of her preferred colors and textiles such as maroon and velvets. Her long braid is also drawn from Martin’s description.

HBO has unleashed a wave of promotion for the “Iron Anniversary”, marking the 10th year since A Game of Thrones premiered. To mark the occasion, a teaser has been made… and many things have been planned during the month-long celebration, including some new and unique collaborations, curated viewing experiences, and a “MaraThrone” series binge which will bring actors from the show to rally fans towards giving to a number of charitable causes.

One of the most unique of the collaborations is with the world-famous jeweler firm Fabergé, who is producing a one-of-a-kind jewelled egg. More details below.

As reported by The Hollywood Reporter, George R.R. Martin has renewed his overall deal with HBO, this time for a reported “mid-eight figure” contract that spans five years. An overall deal is one in which any new ideas or pitches a creator generates will belong to the studio. George first signed an overall deal with HBO back in 2013, which was then renewed in 2016. The article proceeds to run through the five projects in various stages of development, as well as House of the Dragon which begins filming next month if all goes to plan. We did like the speculation on the animated project: