After a divisive Season 2 that had Game of Thrones fans either praising the slow-burn drama or checking their watches between dragon scenes, House of the Dragon, HBO’s prequel series which tells the story of House Targaryen based on George R.R. Martin’s Fire & Blood books, is back in production, and this time, the showrunners are promising something a little weirder and experimental in Season 3.
Filming for House of the Dragon Season 3 kicks off in North Wales in June. However, it’s not just the scenic landscapes that have fans buzzing. It’s the promise of something new. Showrunner Ryan Condal recently appeared on the Happy Sad Confused podcast with Josh Horowitz and dropped a few gems about what’s coming next. “There are four sort of major events from the book that we get to, you know, adapt and realize in three dimensions in the season,” he said. “It’s mindboggling.” But that’s not the interesting part.
“I think the thing that I’m most excited about… is that we got to have a little fun this season,” Condal explained, before teasing what sounds like the show’s first conceptual episode. Written by House of the Dragon writer and executive producer Sara Hess, the Season 3 episode ditches the typical format and leans into something more character-driven. “It isn’t in the sort of traditional vernacular of what we’ve sort of laid out… It’s very character-driven… and I think it’s really great.”
So what could this mysterious episode look like? Your guess is as good as ours, but history shows that when prestige dramas go off-format, it can lead to some of the best TV out there. The Last of Us gave us “Long, Long Time,” a haunting standalone that ditched the main plot to deliver an award-winning episode. Scrubs had a full-on musical episode. Supernatural told stories from the victim’s perspective. Mr. Robot staged entire episodes like a play or with no dialogue at all. Even Banshee shot an episode almost entirely with GoPros.
Could House of the Dragon Season 3 pull off a full flashback episode focused on Old Valyria? Maybe we’ll finally get some deep lore on the Night King. Or maybe, it’s an episode that shows what would have happened if Rhaenyra Targaryen and Alicent Hightower never started this war. Given how good the cast is (Emma D’Arcy, Matt Smith, Olivia Cooke), leaning into performance could be a huge win for the show.
There’s also fresh blood joining the series. James Norton is stepping into the role of Ormund Hightower in House of the Dragon Season 3, and his addition could shake things up politically in King’s Landing. More characters. More betrayal. More fire. And, hopefully, less waiting around for it all to kick off.
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