It’s been less than a week since the debut season of HBO’s House of the Dragon ended, but fans are already stressing over how long they’ll have to wait for the show to return. The Game of Thrones prequel was renewed in late August, but showrunner Ryan Condal recently told Variety that he and the series’ other writers were working on scripts for Season 2 before it was greenlit.
Despite that fact, House of the Dragon’s second season isn’t expected to start production until the spring of next year. Thanks to a new update, it looks like fans will indeed have to wait far longer than they’d like for more episodes of the epic fantasy series.
An Unfortunate Update — During a recent interview with Vulture, HBO Content Chairman and CEO Casey Bloys confirmed that fans shouldn’t expect to see House of the Dragon Season 2 premiere anytime in 2023.
“Don’t expect it in ’23, but I think sometime in ’24,” Bloys said. “We’re just starting to put the plan together, and just like last time, there are so many unknowns. It’s not to be coy or secretive, but you don’t want to say it’s going to be ready on this date, and then you have to move it.”
Bloys’ comments reiterate a belief about House of the Dragon Season 2 that the show’s fans have been harboring for weeks.
The Long Wait — For many House of the Dragon fans, this update won’t come as much of a surprise. When it was revealed that the HBO series wouldn’t start shooting its second season until the spring of 2023, many took that as the first sign that House of the Dragon wouldn’t release any new episodes next year. According to Bloys, those fans were right to think that.
It’s not hard to figure out why the show’s second season will take so long to put together. Not only is the series one of the most expensive productions in TV history, but Season 2 promises to be even grander and more VFX-heavy than its debut. Consequently, even if House of the Dragon Season 2 takes fewer months to shoot than its first one, its post-production process may very well stretch out over a longer period.
House of the Dragon’s first season was largely devoid of the bad CGI that’s frequently plagued so many of the other blockbuster TV shows on the air right now. Odds seem high that HBO and everyone involved in House of the Dragon will want to put in as much time as is necessary to ensure that Season 2 matches that high standard, especially as the story moves from table setting to open conflict.
The Inverse Analysis — As unsurprising as this update is, it will likely still be a major disappointment to House of the Dragon fans. The flip side is that, while viewers may not want to wait until 2024 to see new installments, the sizable gap between the show’s first two seasons gives the series a greater chance of meeting the visual and narrative standards set by its first 10 episodes. Good things are worth waiting for.
House of the Dragon Season 1 is currently available to stream on HBO Max.
