George RR Martin, the author of A Song of Ice & Fire, the source material behind Game of Thrones as well as Fire & Blood (the inspiration behind House of the Dragon), has been quite vocal about how the first show ended too soon, and now shares that if he had had his way, there would have been ‘More time jumps and recastings.’ Speaking of which, the first season of House of the Dragon kept viewers on their toes with constant time jumps throughout, with a significant 10-year jump, recasting two of the most influential women in the series, Rhaenyra and Alicent. Imagine there was even more jumps.
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Where to Begin
Co-creator of House of the Dragon and author George RR Martin chatted in a video interview with Penguin Random House about how the creative team figured out where to start the series.
“One of the big issues with all of these writers was where to begin. [‘House of the Dragon’ showrunner Ryan Condal] began in [Episode 1] with the Great Council where the Lords vote that Jaehaerys’s heir – he’s just lost his son Baelon, who has died of appendicitis – so who is his heir now? And the lords vote to choose Viserys over Rhaenys.”
“That [beginning] was not handed down by some muse from ancient Greece. We – myself and the other writers – had a lot of spirited discussions about where to begin that story.”
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Other Ideas Of Where To Start
One writer suggested starting the series further forward in the story, with the death of King Viserys’ first wife Aemma, which was shown in unfortunate graphic detail later on in the pilot episode, the beginning of the sorrows that Viserys experienced, and one of the hardest decisions he had to make, which ended in sorrow in any case.
Another writer floated the idea of starting the series even further forward, with the death of king Viserys, which doesn’t take place in the series until the eighth episode, after a difficult reign depicted in the prior seven episodes. We can be grateful that we got more backstory than would have been afforded to us if either of these options would have been chosen.
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George R.R. Martin’s Plan
Martin’s “favourite” idea was to start “much earlier”. If George RR Martin had gotten his way, House of the Dragon would have started more than 40 years earlier, featuring even more time jumps and recastings than we have already seen.
“I would have began it like 40 years earlier with the episode I would have called ‘The Heir and the Spare,’ in which Jaehaerys’s two sons, Aemon and Baelon, are alive. And we see the friendship, but also the rivalry, between the two sides of the great house. You know, Aemon dies accidentally when a Myrish crossbowman shoots him by accident on Tarth and then Jaehaerys has to decide who becomes the new heir.
“Is it the daughter of the older son who’s just died or is the second son, who has sons of his own and is a man and she’s just a teenage girl? You would have had 40 more years and you would have had even more time jumps and you would have even more re-castings and, yeah, I was the only one who was really enthused about that.”
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Plans for Season 2
Thankfully, the show has been renewed for a second season already, and is bound to tell the tale of the mounting Dance of the Dragons, as we have seen the climactic build-up throughout the previous season. Showrunner Ryan Condal has already announced to fans a promise that there won’t be any more significant or confusing time jumps or recasting.
George RR Martin has said before that in order to tell the full story of Fire & Blood, House of the Dragon will need four seasons, much to the delight of fans who are enjoying the unfolding of the epic tale. Whether or not that will end up happening is yet to be seen, as he mentioned before that Game of Thrones should have had 13 or 14 seasons to have told the full potential of the story, which we all know never came to fruition.
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