House of the Dragon is attempting to tell the entire Targaryen history spelled out in George R. R. Martin’s book Fire & Blood. But unlike its predecessor, Game of Thrones, the endpoint is already known. With that in mind, House of the Dragon is being deliberate with its pacing, and an end for the show was announced only hours after Season 2 ended. House of the Dragon fans may be disappointed by the show’s brevity, but this decision should help it avoid Game of Thrones’ worst mistake.
According to Variety, House of the Dragon showrunner Ryan Condal confirmed that the series will end after Season 4, and production of Season 3 will begin next year. It may be half as many seasons as Game of Thrones, but four seasons would actually match early predictions. After the release of Season 1, George R. R. Martin posted on his blog that “it is going to take four full seasons of 10 episodes each to do justice to the Dance of the Dragons, from start to finish.”
It doesn’t look like Martin will quite get his full wish. While House of the Dragon Season 1 contained 10 episodes, Season 2 only had eight, and Condal revealed this will most likely be the norm going forward. “I haven’t had discussions with HBO about it, I would just anticipate the cadence of the show, from a dramatic storytelling perspective, will continue to be the same from Season 2 on,” he said.
Although the ending is now on the horizon, House of the Dragon has a more immediate concern: the Battle of the Gullet. It seemed like Season 2 was building to the monumental naval battle that would break the blockade Rhaenyra, Corlys, and the Blacks set up to starve the Greens out of King’s Landing, but the season finale ended mere moments before the battle was supposed to begin.
“That event will happen very shortly in terms of the storytelling of House of the Dragon,” Condal said. “Based on what we know now, it should be the biggest thing to date that we’ve pulled off, and we just wanted to have the time, the space to do that at a level that is going to excite and satisfy the fans and in the way it’s deserved.”
Condal will definitely have that time. If House of the Dragon Season 3 begins production in early 2025, it’s unlikely we’ll see this battle until late 2025 or early 2026. Condal insists the wait will be worth it. “I apologize for the wait, but I will just say if Rook’s Rest and the Red Sowing are any indication, we’re gonna pull off a hell of a win with the Battle the Gullet in the future,” he said.
With only two seasons left, will House of the Dragon be able to stick the landing? While Game of Thrones infamously ran out of source material and fumbled the endings of its biggest storylines, House of the Dragon has a completed book to use as a guide. “I do know now where we're going to end this particular story,” Ryan Condal told Inverse ahead of Season 2. “We have a good plan and we know the roadmap and how to get there.”
So while we’ll be saying goodbye to these Targaryens sooner rather than later, there’s still plenty to get excited about. Season 3 will hit the ground running with one of the most highly anticipated events in the entire story, and the Thrones-verse will continue expanding with more spinoffs like 2025’s A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms. House of the Dragon may only run for four seasons, but we’ll be staying in Westeros for a long time to come.
