After David Benioff and DB Weiss eight seasons of Game of Thronesa new duo takes over for prequel House of the Dragon: Ryan Condal and Miguel Sapochnik.
Condal was, in a sense, dubbed “heir to the throne” by creator George RR Martin after being a fan of the books for the past 20 years; he then convinced Sapochnik, who thrones‘ most famous episodes, to accompany him.
“I didn’t immediately feel warm at the idea of spending more nights in the freezing cold,” admitted Sapochnik at the show’s premiere event in Los Angeles on Wednesday, but he eventually signed up. He also got some advice from his former bosses: “They said, ‘Don’t do it,’ and David didn’t speak to me for six months,” the co-showrunner joked. ‘No, they were sweet. I had one of the best experiences I’ve ever had in my career working with David and Dan – they were great to me, great friends. No one will ever be happy when you go out with your best buddy’s girlfriend, it’s just not going to happen, but they were good.”
This series is set 200 years before the events of Game of Thronesand tells the story of House Targaryen, which spawned Emilia Clarke’s Daenerys and (spoiler alert) Kit Harrington’s Jon Snow.
“As soon as George presented this to me, all the gears clicked into place. Telling the story of the Targaryens at the height of their power made a lot of sense from the original show because we get to know Daenerys very well, we get to know the myth and legend of her family, but we don’t know much about the Targaryens as they actually existed,” Condal . told The Hollywood Reporter. “It’s an intimate story; it’s a bit of a Greek tragedy about the house divided, a house tearing itself apart in succession. Terribly Game of Thrones but very different from the original.”
Taking on the first of HBO thrones follow-up came with significant pressure, Condal said, and even more that he imposed himself as a longtime fan. When in doubt, he asked, “What would Ryan the fan do?” I stuck to that, knowing that you can’t possibly please everyone at once. The fan base is very strong and passionate and I think they know what they want, you just want to give it to them in a way they don’t expect.”
Fans have also vocally compared the show to the upcoming one Lord of the Rings series The rings of powerwhich will appear on Amazon just days later House of the Dragon premieres on HBO.
“I hope both series work and find a huge fan base and that there is a huge overlap in the fan base,” said Condal, acknowledging that he is a huge JRR Tolkien fan. “I think the more big, more expensive – really expensive – fantasies that work on television, the better for us fans because they will make more of them. I really want Rings of Power to work. I’m going to look at it the first night it’s available, I’ll check them all out.”
echoed Sapochnik, “Lord of the Rings is great IP and great material. I have no idea what they did – I got no further the hobbit 1 – but fantastic. The more the better really.”
House of the Dragon premieres on HBO Max August 21.