Game of Thrones began as a cultural behemoth and then ended as a cautionary tale as what could happen when a show goes on for too long. By Season 8, the source material had long been overlapped and the action had become so bloated that wrapping up every storyline was going to feel rushed no matter what. Now, as the Game of Thrones universe begins to grow, there seems to be an air of caution: spinoffs are being delayed, canceled, or moved to animation.
But one spinoff, the smash hit House of the Dragon, is finding success in telling the story of the Dance of the Dragons, the most brutal and bloody civil war in Westeros history. The recently appointed showrunner, Ryan Condal, knows the reputation that lies behind him and is working on House of the Dragon with the greater narrative in mind.
“I do know now where we're going to end this particular story,” he tells Inverse. “And when I say end it, I just mean drop the curtain on it.”
While the Dance may end, Westeros is ever crawling on. “History moves on for another bunch of decades after this until the fall of the Targaryen Dynasty. But I think we do have a planned end.”
The mastermind behind all those dynasties has a good guess as to where it should go. In a blog post in 2022, George R. R. Martin predicted that it would take four full seasons of 10 episodes to cover the entirety of the Dance of the Dragons, and with Season 2 of House of the Dragon only lasting eight, the series is already behind.
To Condal, the focus is much more on the short-term, but he’s keeping an eye on what lies ahead. “I am not yet ready to talk about how many episodes or seasons we need to get there,” he said, “but I know now, having gone through the process of writing and breaking Season 2 and knowing where we're going in Season 3, that we have a good plan and we know the roadmap and how to get there.”
Of course, if you’ve read Fire & Blood, you probably have a good idea of where the story is going, but it’s a comfort to know that there’s a pace in mind for just how that saga will be told on screen. This isn’t another Game of Thrones — this is House of the Dragon.
