House of the Dragon brought back the political mind games Game of Thrones fans remember so fondly, but moving forward, its showrunner reassured the audience there won’t be any more of those pesky time jumps featured in season 1.
Throughout the past two months, in its efforts to adapt George R.R. Martin's Fire & Blood novel, House of the Dragon implemented some strategic time travelling that amounts to almost 20 years in the series’ timeline. This resulted in the series recasting key roles, most notably replacing its two leading ladies, Milly Alcock and Emily Carey, with Emma D'Arcy and Olivia Cooke, respectively. Despite the show’s success, this narrative resource and the constant replacement of some actors were seen as anticlimactic by some viewers.
Fret not though because, in an interview with Deadline, showrunner Ryan Condal confirmed the cast in the House of the Dragon finale will stay as is for the rest of the series. Condal claimed that “as a reward to our wonderful audience for following us through all the time jumps and recasts, they are done” as the show moves onto the infamous Dance of the Dragons historic period. To put it more bluntly, Condal said there are no more recasts nor “huge jumps forward in time” planned, meaning any flash-forwards would be fairly small.
Perhaps the most noticeable time skip in the series was the three-year jump from when Alicent marries Rhaenyra's father, King Viserys. There was also a ten-year move to Rhaenyra and Laenor welcoming their third strong boy to this world and the six-year jump used to age the younger generation of Targaryens. Season 2, as of now scheduled for 2024, will also see Condal work without co-showrunner Miguel Sapochnik, who’s departing House of the Dragon after the initial 10-episode run.
As Martin's readers will know, House of the Dragon covers a small part of Fire & Blood, focusing on the latter phase of the Targaryen dynasty and the beginning of its demise in the Dance of the Dragons, although this week saw the release of an illustrated book titled The Rise of the Dragon that’s a perfect fit for those not fearing major spoilers. The season finale left many viewers craving more House of the Dragon, so surely some are likely to pick up some of Martin's written work.
The author has expressed his satisfaction with the way House of the Dragon has developed some of his characters, as well as voicing his approval over some changes introduced by Condal and Sapochnik in their adaptation, even with all the time jumps involved, which he said were handled pretty well by the duo.
House of the Dragon season 1 is now available on HBO Max.
Source: Deadline