“HBO Was Going To Shelve It”: How House Of The Dragon Was Saved After Almost Being Cancelled
Showrunner Ryan Condal recalls that HBO initially wanted to shelve House of the Dragon early in development until he and George R.R. Martin saved it.
House of the Dragon showrunner Ryan Condal recalls how he and author George R.R. Martin saved the show after HBO almost shelved it entirely. Serving as a spinoff to the wildly successful Game of Thrones, House of the Dragon chronicles the events of the Targaryen Civil War, hundreds of years before the timeline of the mothership show. The spinoff series, which is an adaptation of Martin’s Fire & Blood, aired last year to strong reviews and viewership.
Now, as work on House of the Dragon season 2 continues, Condal reveals in a recent interview with IndieWire that his spinoff show was initially in danger of being canceled before it even began. The show was one of a number of Game of Thrones spinoffs HBO had in development and, at the time, progress on the project hadn’t been going well. Check out Condal’s full comment below:
“That was the spinoff that was the most important to him and he had been unhappy with how development had gone on it. HBO was going to shelve it and he didn’t want them to do that. He wanted me to take another shot at it.”
Why House Of The Dragon Is The Perfect First GOT Spinoff
Although there are still a number of other Game of Thrones spinoffs in development, House of the Dragon is a logical first choice to move forward with. The show, after all, is similar in ways to its predecessor. Instead of jumping into a radically different kind of spinoff story, like the announced Dunk & Egg spinoff, A Knight Of The Seven Kingdoms: The Hedge Knight, House of the Dragon manages to feel both very familiar and yet different.
Crucially, House of the Dragon tells a similar kind of story to Game of Thrones. It chronicles a vast and epic set of events with a cast of at least a dozen crucial characters. Like Game of Thrones, the latest spinoff is really about power, with House of the Dragon season 1 ultimately telling the story of multiple characters vying for control of the Iron Throne and how it rips them apart.
Of course, while House of the Dragon may be a great first return to the world of Westeros after the divisive Game of Thrones ending, the show’s similarities to its predecessor also mean it sometimes feels a little too safe. That being said, House of the Dragon still delivers a tense and action-packed first season, which only sets the stage for more expansive stories to come.
