As House of the Dragon gets to filming its third season this month, showrunner Ryan Condal has finally addressed the “disappointing” criticisms leveraged against the series by none other than author of the source material, George R. R. Martin.
In case you missed it, House of the Dragon has been dishing a much-needed dose of fantasy action since Game of Thrones wrapped up back in 2019. So, fans were left pretty surprised last year when Martin came out swinging against the series with a number of now-deleted blog posts.
He first flagged in August 2024 that he would soon post about “everything that’s gone wrong” with the prequel and as promised, he went hard in a blog post in September.
He called out specific changes made by Condal and the team which he did not support and cautioned “more toxic tweaks” were in the works for season three of House of the Dragon.
Speaking to Entertainment Weekly this week, Condal said the comments were “disappointing”, especially when he’s been a fan of A Song of Ice and Fire — the book series that inspired Game of Thrones — “for almost 25 years now”.
Lowkey everyone’s reaction to Aemond last season. (Source: IMDb)
“Working on the show has been truly one of the great privileges of, not only my career as a writer, but my life as a fan of science-fiction and fantasy. George himself is a monument, a literary icon in addition to a personal hero of mine, and was heavily influential on me coming up as a writer,” he said.
He has previously acknowledged the challenge of adapting the series for the small screen, noting it’s not a traditional narrative. This has meant it’s an “incomplete history” and requires a lot of “joining of the dots and a lot of invention as you go”.
“I will simply say, I made every effort to include George in the adaptation process. I really did. Over years and years. And we really enjoyed a mutually fruitful, I thought, really strong collaboration for a long time,” Condal told the publication.
“But at some point, as we got deeper down the road, he just became unwilling to acknowledge the practical issues at hand in a reasonable way. And I think as a showrunner, I have to keep my practical producer hat on and my creative writer, lover-of-the-material hat on at the same time.
“At the end of the day, I just have to keep marching not only the writing process forward, but also the practical parts of the process forward for the sake of the crew, the cast, and for HBO, because that’s my job.
“So I can only hope that George and I can rediscover that harmony someday. But that’s what I have to say about it.”
Not gonna lie, the “Blood & Cheese” episode still haunts me. (Source: IMDb)
Martin’s biggest critique about season two of House of the Dragon, per his blog post, was about the differences in the “Blood & Cheese” plot line. To recap, the series entirely eliminated a character — Aegon and Helaena Targaryen’s youngest son, Prince Maelor — which Martin believed would have a pretty impact on the future trajectory of seasons three and four.
Meanwhile, in Condal’s version of the story, Aegon and Helaena have only two children, twins Jaehaera and Jaehaerys.
As fans look forward to the next season — with a release date yet to be confirmed, although we know it will be the penultimate season before wrapping up with season four — Condal reassured fans he’s not taking creative decisions lightly.
“There’s nothing we do on the show without talking it through and thinking about it very deeply for usually many months, if not years,” he said.
“I will just say that the creative decisions that we make in the show all flow through me, every single one of them, and this is the show that I want to make and believe, as a fan of Fire & Blood and a deep reader of this material, it is the adaptation that we should be making to not only serve Fire & Blood, but also a massive television audience.”
That season two cliffhanger tho!! (Source: IMDb)
What do we know about House of the Dragon season three?
Fans of the show were left hanging last season when it ended just before the bloody spectacle that would be the Battle of the Gullet. According to the books, it’s one of the bloodiest sea battles in Westeros’ history and boy, it should make for quite a watch.
Addressing the hype, Condel told Entertainment Weekly that the Gullet’s been on the production team’s mind “for about three years now” as they figure out how to execute it successfully.
“The planning that has gone into this… basically all departments working in concert to really make a thing that nobody has ever done before,” he spilled.
The publication also confirmed a bunch of new faces we can expect to see in this season, with Sons of Anarchy‘s Tommy Flanagan joining as Ser Roderick Dustin (AKA Roddy the Ruin) and A Complete Unknown‘s Dan Fogler playing House Manderly knight Torrhen Manderly.
But if you’re keen to read up on all things House of the Dragon season three, we’ve got all the details HERE.
Lead image: IMDb
The post House Of The Dragon Showrunner Responds To George R.R. Martin’s Criticisms appeared first on PEDESTRIAN.TV .
