It should come as no surprise, but still a very exciting piece of news, that the highly anticipatedGame of Thronesprequel,House of the Dragon, has just been renewed for Season 2. The series, which brought fans and newcomers alike back to Westeros on Sunday, August 21, was watched by the largest audience for any new HBO series, and let’s be frank, that’s saying a lot. With the first episode having reached an astounding audience of over 20 million viewers across on-demand and streaming in the U.S., there’s no way HBO would pass up the chance of continuing this already incredibly popular show. And thankfully for us, they haven’t.
House of the Dragonis based on aSong of Ice and Fireauthor and the series' executive producerGeorge R. R. Martin’s 2018 novelFire & Blood. The series tells the story of house Targaryen, beginning 172 years before the birth of Daenerys Targaryen, played inGame of Thronesby the ever-wonderfulEmilia Clarke.
The key Targaryen players in the series specifically are Rhaenyra, played spunkily in her younger years byMilly Alcockand in her more mature years byEmma D’Arcy, Viserys, her father who is much nicer a king than we have seen in mostGame of Thronesseasons and is played by heartfeltly byPaddy Considine, and the bold Daemon, played by the one and onlyMatt Smith. Tensions were already high in the first episode, but fans can rest assured that they’ll get to have more than 10 episodes of this plot of greedy machinations and backstabbing intrigues.
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Alongside D’Arcy, Smith, Considine, and Alcock, other cast members includeOlivia Cooke,Steve Toussaint,Eve Best,Fabien Frankel,Sonoya Mizuno,Rhys Ifans,Bethany Antonia,Phoebe Campbell,Emily Carey,Harry Collett,Ryan Corr,Tom Glynn-Carney,Jefferson Hall,David Horovitch,Wil Johnson,John Macmillan,Graham McTavish,Ewan Mitchell,Theo Nate,Matthew Needham,Bill Paterson,Phia Saban,Gavin Spokes, andSavannah Steyn. The show was created by Martin,Ryan Condal, andMiguel Sapochnik.
Executive Vice President of HBO programming,Francesca Orsimade a statement saying: “We are beyond proud of what the entire HOUSE OF THE DRAGON team has accomplished with season one. 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 George, Ryan, and Miguel 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.”
The second episode ofHouse of the Dragonpremieres on HBO and HBO Max on Sunday, August 28.
