The main conflict of House of the Dragon was once between the Greens and the Blacks, but the shots fired over the post-Season 2 hiatus have mostly come from George R.R. Martin over the show taking significant liberties with his source material. Ahead of Season 3's arrival in the 2026 TV schedule, HBO CEO Casey Bloys opened up about the conflict between Martin and showrunner Ryan Condal, which recently heated up.
Shortly before the premiere of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms as a fresh take on the Game of Thrones franchise, George R.R Martin described his relationship with Ryan Condal as "abysmal" and "worse than rocky." It didn't come as a huge shock after he aired his grievances about House of the Dragon Season 2, but Casey Bloys didn't waste any time in responding to the most recent comments. He told Deadline:
Like any good American family, I would prefer that our dysfunction stays behind closed doors. But here we are. What I would say is George introduced us to Ryan as the person that he thought would be the best to create House the Dragon. And I will say Ryan has been an excellent showrunner and a really great partner and collaborator, so we embrace his vision and his creative choices, or we wouldn’t have done it.
Bloys acknowledged the existence of "dysfunction" when it comes to George R.R. Martin, Ryan Condal, and House of the Dragon, and notably didn't address the problems that the A Song of Ice and Fire author had with Condal's adaptation of Fire & Blood. (Both seasons so far are available streaming with an HBO Max subscription now.)
In 2024, Martin's dramatic blog post (which has since been deleted) called out the show's version of Blood and Cheese, the infamous portion of his book that sets a lot of changes in motion and is arguably the worst thing that Daemon ever did. There were enough changes to the source material that it wasn't hard to compile a full list.
But what about George R.R. Martin's future at HBO, when he was reportedly pleased with A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms? Casey Bloys went on to confirm that there's still a deal between the network and the author:
Listen, I consider it great to have George as the architect of this world. I mean, think about what he has created, the world, the families, the battles, all of the history, it’s pretty extraordinary. George is a great partner for us to have. The idea that he is going to agree with every creator or showrunner that is either developing or producing, two artists are not always going to agree. So, some of this comes with the territory.
The CEO did then confirm that Martin "definitely took a step back" in his involvement with House of the Dragon for Season 3, with more focus on A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms. Bloys also noted that "the Rotten Tomato scores of the first two seasons" have House of the Dragon at 87%, saying that Ryan Condal has been "a great collaborator with us" in making the first Game of Thrones spinoff successful. At the time of writing, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms has a 95% on Rotten Tomatoes.
Casey Bloys' comments now aren't too different from when he initially addressed George R.R. Martin's grievances in late 2024 by comparing the working relationship to a "marriage" that can get "rocky." Ryan Condal was less diplomatic last year, claiming that Martin "just became unwilling to acknowledge the practical issues at hand in a reasonable way."
For now, it's just a matter of waiting to find out how much Season 3 of House of the Dragon departs from how Martin told the history of the Targaryen dynasty in Fire & Blood. Having read the book myself, I will say that some big changes would have to happen early in the third season for HOTD to get on track with the publication, but I'm confident at least the biggest battles will be included. While a premiere date has yet to be announced, the new season is expected to arrive in the summer.
