Westeros

Some significant House of the Dragon news reported by Deadline’s Nellie Andreeva, who has received word (and confirmed some parts of it with HBO) that for “story-driven” reasons the plan of a 10 episode 2nd season has been changed to an 8 episode 2nd season, which has necessitated some re-writing and likely has contributed to the slight delays to the planned commencement of filming (however, production is imminent and the prospective air date remains summer 2024). Per Andreeva’s report:

Interestingly, Andreeva notes that even with the reduction of two episodes, Condal and GRRM are still discussing whether three or four seasons work better. Her piece goes into some more detail about just what was moved out of the 2nd season for the prospective 3rd season, which we’ll quote below and speculate on a bit.

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:

Creation Entertainment and Warner Bros. Discovery have announced details on this year’s Game of Thrones Official Fan Convention to take place at the Los Angeles Convention Center from December 9th through December 11th, including the fact that they’ve added House of the Dragons performers to the extensive line-up of guests, plus a special “virtual appearance” by Ryan Condal, lead writer and show runner of the hit HBO show. Read the full press release below!

Paddy Considine will be one of the guests at the convention, alongside Steve Toussaint (Corlys Velaryon) and Matthew Needham (Larys Strong)

As they say, the best laid plans of mice and men… but at last we finished our promised season 1 overview/discussion of House of the Dragon, which you can see here:

We’ve some other odds and ends to discuss, such as an extra video we did discussing the finale after Elio’s return from Spain, and a podcast Elio recorded for the Boiled Leather Audio Hour podcast, details about which you can find below!

Arrax approaching Storm’s End.

The final episode of the first season of House of the Dragon is done, and we’re (actually, just Linda initially, but we’ll have more videos in the days to come) back with some thoughts, background, commentary on changes, and more in our latest video at the Westeros.org Youtube channel:

And that concludes the first season of House of the Dragon! The Dance has truly begun.

Rhaenyra by the Painted Table, lit by fire from below.

The penultimate episode of the first season of House of the Dragon is done, and we’re back with some thoughts, background, commentary on changes, and more in our latest video at the Westeros.org Youtube channel:

Next up will be “The Black Queen” to conclude the first season of House of the Dragon.

The Green Council, as Otto and Alicent Hightower inform the councillors of the king’s death while Ser Criston Cole watches.

Another episode down, and we’re back with some thoughts, background, commentary on changes, and more in our latest video at the Westeros.org Youtube channel:

We’re in the home stretch now, with just two episodes to go. Next up will be “The Green Council”, followed up by “The Black Queen” to conclude the first season of House of the Dragon.

King Viserys on the Iron Throne.

The official Youtube page for the Game of Thrones Studio Tour at the Linen Mill Studio in Northern Ireland— exclusive home to an enormous assortment of props, weapons, armor, costumes, and even whole sets from the TV show—has released a lengthy video where the show’s weapons master, Tommy Dunne, speaks at length about his work on the show as it relates specifically to the infamous catspaw dagger that has now become so central to House of the Dragon. See below for the video!

The original catspaw dagger as seen on Game of Thrones. The new version is closely based on it, but its proportions have been tweaked for House of the Dragon.

Another episode down, and we’re back with some thoughts, background, commentary on changes, and more in our latest video at the Westeros.org Youtube channel:

The next episode will give us what we believe will be a last time jump this season (and perhaps for all the show from here on out), aging up the children a bit further.

Lord Corlys Velaryon and Princess Rhaenys with their granddaughters Baela and Rhaena. Copyright Ollie Upton/HBO

An interview long in the making, we finally got to sit down with Ryan Condal, lead writer, executive producer, and now sole show runner of House of the Dragon last week to talk about the show. After Linda had a chance to say hello then headed off to keep an eye on our very rambunctious puppy Lancelot, we started the interview.

We open up with a question on post-production, and then get into the weeds on favorite book characters, depictions of violence, heraldry, a forgotten Valyrian house, the change from book canon when casting the Velaryons, whether Ryan will continue with the show after completing this particular story, and more.

Click here for the interview!

Ryan Condal behind the scenes with a maquette of Caraxes. ©️ Ollie Upton/HBO

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.

The very eventful “We Light the Way” has aired globally, and we’re back with our usual non-review focus on providing some more background information and changes from the source material to the screen. We even have some dragon facts!

If you enjoyed the video, please do consider liking and subscribing, and feel free to comment with your own thoughts or questions!

Alicent Hightower embodying her house’s signal for war by wearing a green gown.

We’re back to discuss the events of “King of the Narrow Sea”, with our usual non-review focus on providing some more background information and changes from the source material to the screen. It’s an eventful episode, although one distinctly lacking in new dragon facts to discuss:

If you enjoyed the video, please do consider liking and subscribing, and feel free to comment with your own thoughts or questions!

Daemon Targaryen wearing the crown of the King of the Narrow Sea.

Both Linda and I got our first glimpses at the House of the Dragon-inspired beverages from Danish brewery Mikkeller (dubbing themselves House Mikkeller of Denmark, naturally) at the premieres of House of the Dragon in Stockholm and Amsterdam. The red Caraxes cans were very prominent at the afterparty bars, and seemed to be quite popular. Mikkeller Brewery contacted us about trying a sample of the beers, which we were glad to do despite neither of us being experienced with beer (non-alcholic or otherwise!) and we have to say it was a very interesting experience that makes us think we’re going to have to start branching out from the ciders which are normally all we drink when it comes to alcohol.

Below, you’ll see our video “review”, which I put in quotes because we’re woefully lacking in knowledge to give thorough and detailed impressions!

A photo from the European premiere’s afterparty in Amsterdam.

We’re back to discuss the third episode of House of the Dragon, titled “Second of His Name”. As usual, we discuss some changes from the source material, provide some additional background information for things touched on only lightly in the episode, and finally some dragon facts (quite brief ones, in this case!)