‘House of the Dragon’ fans are in for more dragons in the HBO hit’s upcoming second season.
via THR:
“You’re going to meet five new dragons,” co-creator Ryan Condal said at an FYC screening of the hit series in Los Angeles on Tuesday. Condal added that the upcoming season would start filming “very shortly” in 2023.
Condal was joined by eight castmembers of House of the Dragon, along with George R.R. Martin, his co-creator and author of the fantasy novels on which both Game of Thrones and the new drama show are based. The actors on the stage included Rhys Ifans (who plays Otto Hightower), Eve Best (Rhaenys Targaryen), Steve Toussaint (Corlys Velaryon), Fabien Frankel (Criston Cole), Matt Smith (Daemon Targaryen), Olivia Cooke (Alicent Hightower), Paddy Considine (King Viserys/Targaryen) and Emily Carey (young Alicent Hightower).
Following a screening of season one’s eighth episode, “The Lord of the Tides,” the panel engaged in a Q&A session with Josh Gad, who made an odd but amusing fit as moderator. “If you’re wondering what I’m doing here, I’m asking myself the same question,” Gad teased.
“This is a favorite of mine. Of course, I’m hardly objective,” Martin told the crowd when announcing the episode. “I thought it was really powerful. This guy [Condal] has an amazing writing staff. Because if you read my book Fire & Blood, which you should, it’s a fake history. So there are a lot of the details that are in this that are absolutely wonderful and moving that are not in the book. They added stuff, and they added good stuff, which is important.”
Of the pressure to follow HBO’s previous smash hit Game of Thrones, which Martin was quick to point out holds the record for the most Emmy Award wins of any fictional series, the author instead turned to the questions still looming over the impending, long-anticipated final books in his A Song of Ice and Fire series. Fans’ outrage over the stories’ lack of closure to this day trails him.
“The pressure of trying to follow the original series is nothing compared to the pressure of trying to finish the novel,” Martin said. “That has me sleepless at nights. The show? That’s Ryan’s problem.”
They need to hurry up with that second season!
