Game of Thrones showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss are nowhere to be seen behind the scenes of HBO’s next voyage to Westeros. Only original creator and novelist George R.R. Martin is back as an executive producer, guiding an all-new creative team 193 years back in time to the reign of the Targaryen dynasty.
When House of the Dragon premieres exclusively on NOW this August 22, we’ll get to see what a post Benioff-Weiss GoT story looks like, and we hope it might win back some of those fantasy fans who got burned by the conclusion of the Stark family saga.
The first season of this lush prequel series will be ten episodes long, released weekly from August 22 to October 24. From its title to all that platinum-blonde hair in the trailer below, we can tell House of the Dragon is sharply focused on the mysterious Targaryen family.
Although they won’t be quite so mysterious as they were in Daenarys and her nasty brother’s time: here they rule, with an awesome crew of 15 dragons in tow. More dragons, more dragon-riding scenes (this time with young Princess Rhaenyra [Emma D’Arcy]), more mega-budget for HBO to splurge.
Doctor Who‘s Matt Smith has been a busy boy lately, cast in menacing villain roles in both Morbius and Last Night in Soho. Here he seems like another slimy character, the Targaryen Prince Daemon. He’s the younger brother of the ruling King Viserys (Paddy Considine), but if we learned anything from GoT‘s first season it’s that crowns can topple and land somewhere new over the course of just one episode.
One place where this series will definitely take viewers is back into the thankless mines of fan-theory. But which characters will be prophesied to die/have sex/betray one another? Let’s wait until we meet the whole Targaryen clan and their scheming supporters before getting in over our heads.
