House of the Dragon

House of the Dragon
Genre	Medieval fantasy
Format	Serial drama
Created by	Ryan Condal George R. R. Martin
Developed by	Ryan Condal Miguel Sapochnik (season 1)
Written by	Ryan Condal Wes Tooke Claire Kiechel Ti Mikkel Sara Hess Charmaine DeGraté Gabe Fonseca Ira Parker Kevin Lau Eileen Shim
Directed by	Miguel Sapochnik Greg Yaitanes Clare Kilner Geeta Vasant Patel Alan Taylor (season 2)
Starring	Paddy Considine Matt Smith Emma D'Arcy Olivia Cooke Rhys Ifans Steve Toussaint Eve Best Sonoya Mizuno Fabien Frankel Milly Alcock Emily Carey Graham McTavish Matthew Needham Jefferson Hall Harry Collett Tom Glynn-Carney Ewan Mitchell Bethany Antonia Phoebe Campbell Phia Saban
Composer(s)	Ramin Djawadi
Country of origin	United States
Language(s)	English
No. of seasons	1
No. of episodes	10
Production
Executive producer(s)	George R. R. Martin Ryan Condal Miguel Sapochnik Vince Gerardis Sara Hess Ron Schmidt (season 1) Ira Parker Greg Yaitanes David Hancock Charmaine DeGraté Jocelyn Diaz (season 1) Melissa Bernstein (season 2) Kevin de la Noy (season 2) Loni Peristere (season 2)
Producer(s)	Karen Wacker Angus Moore Gordon Alexis Raben (season 1) Kevin Lau Richard Sharkey
Editor(s)	Tim Porter Crispin Green
Location(s)	United Kingdom Warner Bros. Studios, Leavesden Cornwall Wales (season 2) Spain Cáceres Trujillo (season 2) United States California Portugal Monsanto
Cinematography	Fabian Wagner Pepe Avila del Pino Alejandro Martínez Catherine Goldschmidt
Camera setup	Steve Weightman Jack Parry
Running time	54-68 minutes
Production company(s)	HBO Cross Plains Productions Bastard Sword Warner Bros. Pictures GRRM 1:26 Pictures Inc.
Distributor	HBO Films Warner Bros. Domestic Television Distribution
Broadcast
Original channel	HBO, HBO Max
Picture format	2:1 (4K UHD)
Audio format	Dolby Atmos (HBO Max) Dolby Digital
First shown in	United States
Original run	August 21, 2022 – October 23, 2022
Chronology
Preceded by	Game of Thrones
Followed by	A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms: The Hedge Knight
External links
HBO.com: House of the Dragon
Production website

House of the Dragon is an American medieval fantasy television series developed by HBO. It is a prequel to Game of Thrones.

Plot

House of the Dragon takes place two centuries before the War of the Five Kings, focusing on the Dance of the Dragons. The show is based on George R. R. Martin's Fire & Blood, along with the novella The Princess and the Queen and the novelette The Rogue Prince.

Production

Conception and development

House of the Dragon, then titled The Dance of the Dragons, was first pitched by George R. R. Martin in the summer of 2016, when he was still writing Fire & Blood. It was initially helmed by Carly Wray and then by Bryan Cogman. House of the Dragon was greenlit in October 2019 and has received a 10-episode straight-to-series order by HBO, who have hired Miguel Sapochnik to direct the pilot episode and additional episodes. In addition to Sapochnik, Ryan Condal will serve as co-showrunner. George R. R. Martin, Vince Gerardis, and Casey Bloys have been attached as executive producers, and Wes Tooke, Claire Kiechel, Ti Mikkel, Sara Hess, and Charmaine DeGraté as writers. Although Martin has expressed interest in writing an episode, he wishes to first finish The Winds of Winter. Game of Thrones composer Ramin Djawadi is returning to compose the music of House of the Dragon. On 11 July 2021, the Academy and Emmy award-winning visual effects company Pixomondo announced that they were working on the show. Pixomondo has previously worked on Game of Thrones.

Promotion

On his podcast "The Stuff Dreams Are Made Of", Ryan Condal revealed that three named Valyrian steel swords from the books have been made for the first series of the show, including the two Targaryen blades Blackfyre and Dark Sister.

On 5 October 2021, HBO released the first official teaser. In February 2022, HBO confirmed that House of the Dragon had finished production. An official teaser trailer was released on 5 May 2022.

Starting mid July 2022, a month ahead of the premiere, several promotion materials were released by HBO:

• Several behind the scene teasers titled "A New Reign", "Returning to Westeros", "Before the Dance: An Illustrated History with George R.R. Martin", "Height of an Empire", "Noble Houses", and "George R.R. Martin On Dragons & Their Magic".
• The official trailer and its extended version.

The "House of the Dragon: DracARys" app was launched on July 20. House of the Dragon also had a pannel at the San Diego Comic-Con on July 23 2022 moderated by Jason Concepcion. The panelists included George R. R. Martin (author/producer), Ryan Condal (co-showrunner/writer) and several members of the cast; Paddy Considine, Matt Smith, Olivia Cooke, Emma D’Arcy, Steve Toussaint, Eve Best, Fabien Frankel, Milly Alcock, and Emily Carey. Miguel Sapochnik (co-showrunner/director) was also scheduled to be on that panel but was sick and had to cancel.

The world premiere took place at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles on the 27th July 2022.

On the 26th August 2022, five days after the pilot aired, House of the Dragon is officially renewed for a second season.

Cast and characters

Main article: List of actors of House of the Dragon

See also: List of characters created for House of the Dragon

Filming locations

The first season of House of the Dragon is being filmed in the United Kingdom and Spain. Filming began on April 5th 2021 in London, at Leavesden Studios, as well as the island castle of St. Michael's Mount in Cornwall.

Broadcast

In January 2020, HBO President of Programming Casey Bloys guessed that House of the Dragon would premiere sometime in 2022. This was later confirmed in the first teaser. The premiere date was later revealed to be August 21, 2022.

Title sequence

The title sequence for House of the Dragon is first revealed at the beginning of the second episode of the series, The Rogue Prince. It is similar in style as the one created for the series' predecessor, Game of Thrones, and it uses the same music. The sequence depicts a three-dimensional model of Old Valyria similar to the one King Viserys I Targaryen has in his royal appartement in the series. As the camera swoops across the Valyrian city, it focuses on different gears that are connected by blood running down the model. The blood retraces the history and bloodline of House Targaryen, starting with the Doom of Valyria, then linking the different members of the family from Aegon the Conqueror to Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen. Meanwhile, the names of the principal cast and creative staff are displayed. The sequence concludes after about one-and-a-half minutes with the opening credits indicating the episode's writers and directors. The title sequence changes slighty when new characters are born or married into the Targaryen bloodline. The following characters have been represented in the title sequence:

Aegon the Conqueror's bloodline

• King Aegon I Targaryen, the Doom of Valyria and his iron and ruby crown.
• Queen Rhaenys Targaryen, a dragon with a scorpion bolt through its eye.
  • King Aenys I Targaryen, his yellow gold crown.
    • King Jaehaerys I Targaryen, his yellow gold crown.
    • Queen Alysanne Targaryen, TBD.
      • Prince Baelon Targaryen, a Hand of the King pin.

Rhaenyra's bloodline

• King Viserys I Targaryen, Jaehaerys I's crown.
• Queen Aemma Arryn, the falcon of House Arryn.
  • Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen, her Valyrian steel necklace.
  • Ser Harwin Strong, the three rivers of House Strong.
    • Prince Jacaerys Velaryon, a seahorse imprinted on the castle of Dragonstone.
    • Prince Lucerys Velaryon, a dagger.
    • Prince Joffrey Velaryon, the seahorse of House Velaryon.
    • Prince Aegon Targaryen, the castle of Dragonstone.
    • Prince Viserys Targaryen, the castle of Dragonstone.

Alicent's bloodline

• Ser Otto Hightower, a Hand of the King pin.
  • Queen Alicent Hightower, the Hightower of House Hightower with the Seven-Pointed Star of the Faith of the Seven.
    • King Aegon II Targaryen, a naked woman with a crown.
    • Queen Helaena Targaryen, a spider.
      • Prince Jaehaerys Targaryen, Princess Jaehaera Targaryen, and Prince Maelor Targaryen, a six fingered hand.
    • Prince Aemond Targaryen, a sapphire.
    • Prince Daeron Targaryen, a cup.

Daemon's bloodline

• Prince Daemon Targaryen, his dragon winged helmet.
  • Lady Baela Targaryen and Lady Rhaena Targaryen, a dragon egg.

Corlys's bloodline

• Lord Corlys Velaryon, the seahorse of House Velaryon.
• Princess Rhaenys Targaryen, TBD.
  • Lady Laena Velaryon, the braid of the ropes on her sarcophagus.

External links

• House of the Dragon at HBO
• House of the Dragon at the Game of Thrones & House of the Dragon Wiki
• House of the Dragon at IMDB
• House of the Dragon at Wikipedia