JOIN OUR WHATSAPP CHANNEL
House of the Dragon: Which Character Does George R R Martin Wishes He Wrote Like HBO’s HotD Version
In August 2022, George R.R. Martin, author of A Song of Ice and Fire, appeared on the Game of Owns podcast to discuss TV, books, work, and life. He expressed confidence in the success of House of the Dragon, whose second season is set to premiere on HBO and Max this summer.
In August 2022, about a month before the premiere of the Game of Thrones spinoff House of the Dragon, George R.R. Martin, author of A Song of Ice and Fire, appeared on the Game of Owns podcast to discuss TV, books, work, and life. Martin was confident that House of the Dragon would be a hit, and the second season is coming out on HBO and Max this summer.
Martin envisioned several Game of Thrones spinoffs, with HBO currently working on A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms: The Hedge Knight, based on his Dunk and Egg novellas. This smaller-scale story is expected to feel different from House of the Dragon, showcasing HBO's commitment to creating unique and engaging TV series.
George R.R. Martin wishes he had written Viserys more like in the House of the Dragon
In 2016, Martin proposed House of the Dragon and Dunk and Egg as potential spinoffs for HBO's Game of Thrones' successor shows. Despite a pilot for a show called Bloodmoon, they ultimately returned to their original focus. "They responded to [the idea for House of the Dragon] right away," Martin remembered. "I was involved in it from the first."
"There's part of me that would love to be actually writing and running all of these shows...but I can't! You may not know this, but there's this book that I'm writing...it's a little late, but I gotta keep working on it and finishing it!", Martin said, referring to The Winds of Winter, the long-awaited sixth book in his Song of Ice and Fire series he's been writing since 2011.
During the early years of Game of Thrones he would write episode scripts once per season, but doesn't do that kind of thing anymore for fear it will distract him, so obviously being a showrunner is out of the question. "Those are life-eating jobs," he said. "It's 24/7 to be a showrunner...You're the one they call at 2 in the morning when something has gone wrong in Morocco...There's no way I could do that and hope to do any of the novels. So my part in all of these things is generating some ideas, helping setting up, keeping it consistent with the world, and finding good partners to work with."
House of the Dragon could be reimagined if Martin were the showrunner, following his book Fire & Blood, which tells the story from the perspective of Archmaester Gyldayn 200 years after the events. Martin and his collaborators considered framing the show in a Rashômon approach, but ultimately decided against it.
The show, under the direction of Ryan Condal and Miguel Sapochnik, achieved great success, with Condal handling the second season solo. They even made unexpected changes, which Martin never contemplated, such as increasing King Viserys Targaryen's role.
"Viserys...was not a character who particularly engaged me [in the book]," Martin said. "What Paddy Constantine has done, to my mind, has made him much more of a tragic figure, and less of an amiable guy who doesn't really realize what's going on about him." At this point, Martin wishes he had written Viserys how he's depicted on the TV series. "Admittedly, it doesn't happen very often; more often it's the reverse."
House of the Dragon season 2 is coming out on June
HBO released the first teaser for season 2, showcasing dragon warfare in Westeros. The teaser while debuted at the 2023 Comic-Con Experience Panel in São Paolo, Brazil, revealed Rhaenyra Targaryen and Alicent Hightower's departure. "There is no war more hateful to the gods, than a war between kin," Rhaenys (Eve Best) says in the trailer. "And no war so bloody as a war between dragons."
Even through many major television shows experienced heavy production delays from the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes, the Game of Thrones spinoff filmed throughout this past summer. The exact plot for House of The Dragon season 2 is under wraps, but the series showrunner, Ryan Condal, told The Hollywood Reporter that many new characters will appear.
"We are thrilled to be shooting again with members of our original family as well as new talents on both sides of the camera," he said. "All your favorite characters will soon be conspiring at the council tables, marching with their armies and riding their dragons into battle. We can’t wait to share what we have in store."
Season 2 will also reportedly introduce us to some new winged beasts. “You’re going to meet five new dragons,” Condal revealed at a recent event in Los Angeles.
Unlike the fandom's obsessive theorizing with Thrones, House of Dragon will be adapted from George R.R. Martin's finished novel, Fire & Blood, so its course is pretty much laid out. Yet, so far, fans of the fantasy series have been doing a fantastic job not revealing the fates of many of its popular main characters, even as many of the show's deaths and major plot twists have been coming fast and loose.
Latest Articles
