What Should You Know Before Watching House of the Dragon

Set 200 years before game of Thrones, House of the Dragon will give the fans more drama and more dragons.

It’s like Game of Thrones fans just got their prayers answered. HBO will start premiering the first spin-off series of GOT titled House of the Dragon on 22nd August. Of course, we will not get to see the Dothraki, Cersei Lannister, or Jon Snow in this prequel.

Instead, we will get a closer look at House Targaryen, which is one of the most popular families in the show. Of course, there is no need to watch the original Game of Thrones to be able to enjoy House of the Dragon.

After all, this prequel is set 200 years before Game of Thrones. Despite this, one can be certain that there’s going to be a lot of blood, politics, and a lot more dragons. In fact, dragons might be at the very core of the show due to the Targaryen theme.

So, it does not matter whether you watch Game of Thrones before or after watching House of the Dragons. But it is certainly recommended to do so for a complete overview of the universe.

What does House of the Dragon revolve around?

It has been mentioned that House of the Dragon will feature the “beginning of the fall” for the House Targaryen. This would make way for Viserys and Daenerys, the two descendants of the house as shown in the Game of Thrones after two centuries. By then, the house is nearly extinct.

Interestingly, House of the Dragon is also based on a book written by George R. R. Martin. However, it is uncertain whether the show is a complete adaptation of the novel or whether we will get to see newer storylines being incorporated.

However, fans are extremely optimistic due to the act that George R. R. Martin is directly involved with the new series. Furthermore, he even recommended showrunner and co-creator Ryan Condal. Other than that, he has also given straight demands regarding the way the show is to be made.

So, George R. R. Martin is the co-showrunner of the show. According to Sapochnik, Martin had a “bee in his bonnet” regarding the requirements for House of the Dragon Perhaps, the one reason for his staunch involvement is the fact that he was left out between Season 5 and 7 of Game of Thrones.

Fans have waited a long time

It was stated in 2018 that the upcoming Game of Thrones show will be based on Fire and Blood. Later in 2019, House of the Dragon got recommended to be made into a series. That was 5 months after the final episode, which significantly divided the reactions of the community.

At first, Bryan Cogman brought a pitch to HBO in 2019. However, it later got reworked after the network rejected it. Finally, Cogman stated that was done with Westeros and went on to become a consultant on the upcoming Lord of the Ring show by Amazon Video.

Of course, he is not the only person who got his heart broken by HBO in relation to GOT spinoffs. In the years and months leading up to GOT’s finale, several spinoffs were being planned. However, House of the Dragon happens to be only one of them.

Naomi Watts was supposed to be a lead in Bloodmoon, which was supposed to be a GOT prequel set before the seven kingdoms. So, the timeline really was very primitive in that sense. According to Martin, that series was a “difficult assignment” because it was not appearing in any of his novels.

Despite having scripts written, and sets built, approved, and shot, even Martin did not see the final cut. Eventually, HBO spent over $30 million on the series pilot alone. Eventually, it was announced that the project was dead, and no reasons were provided. Fortunately for the fans, this meant that a more optimistic project was to be started, which is House of the Dragon with Martin as a co-showrunner.

What could really go wrong with Martin being in the core team of the show? This fact alone has forced fans to set higher expectations. After all, there were a lot of mixed reviews and angry reactions after the Game of Thrones finale aired. Some fans seemed to have lost all hope for the Game of Thrones franchise.