Summary

Showrunner of House of the Dragon, Ryan Condal, acknowledges George R.R. Martin's criticisms, strives for collaboration.
Despite criticisms and changes, House of the Dragon Season 1 received positive reviews and high ratings.
House of the Dragon Season 3 is currently in production, featuring new faces Dan Fogler and Tommy Flanagan.

Besides hoping for writing updates from legendary author George R.R. Martin, fans enjoy hearing what he thinks of HBO's Game of Thrones adaptation. With House of the Dragon season 3 is on the way, showrunner Ryan Condal is opening up about Martin's criticisms of the popular prequel.

In an interview with Entertainment Weekly on March 31st, 2025, Condal discussed Martin's August and September 2024 posts on his LiveJournal account, Not A Blog, where Martin was critical of House of the Dragon. Although he deleted those posts, fans saw them, and knew that he was critical of some creative decisions that were made. Condal told Entertainment Weekly that others talked to him about the posts, but he didn't read them himself. Condal praised Martin's work and called him "a literary icon" and "personal hero" and said, "It was disappointing."

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Condal addressed his relationship with Martin and said:

"I made every effort to include George in the adaptation process. I really did. Over years and years."

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Condal continued that they had a "strong collaboration" for years but:

"he just became unwilling to acknowledge the practical issues at hand in a reasonable way."

The House of the Dragon showrunner acknowledged that he has to think about two sides: being a producer who has to think about how to logically tell a story within the context of a TV show and also being a writer who is a fan of Game of Thrones. Condal said he had to progress with the show. He concluded by saying he "can only hope that George and I can rediscover that harmony someday."

House of the Dragon made changes to Fire and Blood and several fans were also critical of the show's second season. But as Condal explained, a lot of decisions have to be made, and sometimes that means making alterations when adapting source material. In his EW interview, Condal also mentioned being aware of the show's budget and employing "the resources we have right now." As Variety reported, HBO spent approximately $100 million on every Game of Thrones season, and every House of the Dragon season 1 episode was less than $20 million.

House of the Dragon season 1 premiered on HBO on August 21st, 2022 and was well-received. Fans enjoyed being able to visit this fascinating world again, and the new dragons were a highlight. The series has an 86% rating on the Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer and 78% on the Popcornmeter, as compared to 89% and 85% for Game of Thrones. Those are fairy high numbers for a prequel or spinoff series, especially once that was so highly anticipated. House of the Dragon season 2 premiered on June 16th, 2024 and while the first season had 10 episodes, season 2 had 8. The series includes cast members Emma D'Arcy and Milly Alcock, who play both versions of Rhaenyra Targaryen, along with Steve Toussaint, Matt Smith, Paddy Considine, and Eve Best.

HBO CEO Casey Bloys previously commented on Martin's blog posts and the professional relationship that the House of the Dragon team had with the author. Martin was even critical of the dragons and he has spoken quite a lot about his least favorite aspects of the prequel series. However, Martin likes the upcoming prequel A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms and praised it for staying true to the source material.

TV Line reported that House of the Dragon season 3 is now in production, as of Monday March 31st, 2025. The third season will also have two new faces: Dan Fogler and Tommy Flanagan. Fans are definitely looking forward to seeing the new episodes. As of this writing, there is no release date for House of the Dragon season 3.

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