As House of the Dragon hits the halfway point, Ryan Condal talks about the production schedule and having the time and space to excite and satisfy the fans. 

Season 2 of the Game of Thrones prequel House of the Dragon, has just drawn to a close.

The show adapts Fire & Blood, the chronicle of a civil war between rival Targaryen claims on the Iron Throne.

As the dust settles on a tension filled, yet battle-free finale, showrunner Ryan Condal has given a virtual press conference (via The Hollywood Reporter and elsewhere).

He addressed the future, suggesting the show is likely to run for 4 seasons in total. Season 3, entering production “earlyish 2025”, aims for a 2026 airing.

The recently concluded season 2 ran for a reduced count of eight episodes. That’s likely to be the template now, as Condal explains:

 “I haven’t had discussions with HBO about it, I would just anticipate the cadence of the show, from dramatic storytelling perspective, will continue to be the same from Season 2 on.”

The Battle of the Gullet

He also addressed fan disappointment that the show has not reached the pivotal clash of The Battle of the Gullet. The recent finale spent time putting people (and dragons) into place, rather than providing an all-out action set piece.

However, Condal insists it will be worth the wait:

“Having to balance storytelling and the resources that you have available to tell that story… We are trying to give The Gullet – which is arguably the second most anticipated action event of Fire & Blood – trying to give it the time and the space that it deserves.

We are building to that event that will happen very shortly in terms of the storytelling, and it should be the biggest thing to date that we’ve pulled off. We just wanted to have the time and the space to do that at a level that is going to excite and satisfy the fans in the way it’s deserved. We also wanted to build some anticipation toward it. So I apologize for the wait, but … with the team that we have together, we’re going to pull off a hell of a win with The Battle of the Gullet.”

We’ll keep you posted on House of the Dragon – in the UK, the show airs on Sky Atlantic and streams on NOW.