In a recently released featurette for HBO Max’s Game of Thrones: House of the Dragon, showrunners Ryan J. Condal and Miguel Sapochnik along with book series creator George R.R. Martin dove behind the scenes into what some of the prequel series is all about.
Based on Martin’s Fire & Blood series, which tells the story of House Targaryen 200 years before the events of Game of Thrones, the new show has a trove of lore to dig into under the writer’s guidance. “I’m excited, its always a little apprehensive when you turn your baby over to foster parents but I’m involved in this,” Martin shared while hyping up the new team, “It’s great to have Ryan, who’s a great writer, and someone who really knew my world. He’s going to do his best to remain faithful to it. I knew Miguel Sapochnik was an amazing director. He’d won an Emmy and done some of our best episodes. There’s always a little suspense to ‘How good is it going to be?’ but I think I’m in good hands with Ryan and Miguel.”
Ryan J. Condal, who also serves as the writer and executive producer, explained what made him so excited to take the reins on a Westeros we haven’t seen before. “George and his writing was a huge influence on me. It’s an incredible feeling to achieve my dream job. You get that great call which is the thing hat every writer is hoping for, telling you ‘We’re going to go make this thing.’ And you’re happy for a few seconds... and then you realize the responsibility that’s on your shoulders.”
Executive producer and director Miguel Sapochnik elaborated, “The idea of going back to Westeros was almost too much of a challenge. You have to start by respecting it, you can’t start by doing different for different’s sake... realizing what worked in Thrones and what didn’t. What do we want to better? How do we want to evolve?”
We’re excited to see what’s next with quite the padded ensemble of Targaryens and other royals to follow this time around, including Paddy Considine (HBO’s The Third Day), Matt Smith (Doctor Who), Olivia Cooke (Ready Player One), Emma D’Arcy, Steve Toussaint (Doctor Who), Eve Best, Sonoya Mizuno, Fabien Frankel, and Rhys Ifans (The King’s Man). Check out the video below for more!
House of the Dragon premieres on HBO Max August 21.
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