While we knew HBO’s Game of Thrones prequel House of the Dragon would be returning this year, we now know exactly when it will arrive. Well okay, not exactly, but pretty close.
The release date for House of the Dragon season 2 is in June 2024, though the exact date has not yet been given. This coincides with the “early summer” window HBO eventually stated, as yes, June is indeed early summer.
Unlike many big shows, House of the Dragon was not delayed because of the writers and actors strikes, but rather because so many shows these days just have sprawling amounts of time between seasons anyway. For House of the Dragon, if it premieres in June 2024, that will be just under two years since season 1 premiered in August of 2022.
House of the Dragon, along with shows like The Last of Us and White Lotus, are the HBO powerhouses in the modern era, even if none of them live up to Game of Thrones viewership in its prime. Since season 1 ended, we’ve recently seen the casting Milly Alcock, the former young Rhaenyra Targaryen as Supergirl in James Gunn’s new DC universe, where he first saw here in that HotD role, and thought she might be right for the part. Turns out she was.
House of the Dragon has already been filming since April 2023, one of the shows that got to move forward because A) its scripts were finished before the writers strike and B) non-American actors it wasn’t beholden to the actors strike. But yes, it still took almost two years anyway.
HBO currently has a number of other Game of Thrones spin-offs in various stages of production, though one is the likely second show to join House of the Dragon on air. The winner may end up being Dunk and Egg, which has set a “late 2025” release window. Production should begin this spring and barring any mishaps, this will probably make it out before any of the other series that are still bouncing around. Dunk and Egg is supposed to run three seasons to get through George RR Martin novella source material.
It seems unlikely that HBO will ever fully reclaim that Game of Thrones magic no matter how many in-universe spin-offs they make, but if the numbers these shows are putting up are even half that good, it’s a win for them, which is why we’re going to be getting a number of these no matter what.
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Pick up my sci-fi novels the Herokiller series and The Earthborn Trilogy