The final season of Game of Thrones may not have lived up to expectations, but HBO is still keen on exploring the world of Westeros. Just last year, the network gave a straight-to-series order to House of the Dragon, a prequel series set 300 years before Game of Thrones based upon George R.R. Martin's Fire & Blood, a Targaryen history book which chronicles the history of House Targaryen, starting off with "Aegon the Conqueror, creator of the Iron Throne, and [going on] to recount the generations of Targaryens who fought to hold the throne, all the way up to the civil war, known as the Dance of the Dragons, that nearly tore their dynasty apart."
Although the big news from Warner Bros. today was almost certainly the announcement that they'll be unleashing their entire 2021 slate both in theaters and on HBO Max, WarnerMedia CEO Jason Kilar dropped a brief update on the state of House of the Dragon.
Principal photography starts on the next Game of Thrones series, House of the Dragon, in a few months. Look out for dragons overhead!
In addition to letting us know that production on House of the Dragon will kick off early next year, Kilar also revealed two pieces of concept art.
It was announced in October that Paddy Considine (The Outsider) had signed on to star in the series as King Viserys Targaryen, who has been chosen by the lords of Westeros to succeed the Old King, Jaehaerys Targaryen. A warm, kind and decent man, Viserys only wishes to carry forward his grandather's legacy, but good men do not necessarily make for great kings. The ten-episode series was co-created by George R.R. Martin and Ryan Condal, with Condal slated to pen the script alongside Sara Lee Hess as well as serve as co-showrunner alongside Miguel Sapochnik.
House of the Dragon wasn't the first Game of Thrones prequel to move foward, as HBO initially ordered a pilot for another series that was set thousands of years before the main series and was written by Jane Goldman. The pilot starred Naomi Watts as a "charismatic socialite hiding a dark secret" but HBO elected not to pick the series up. "In development, in pilots, sometimes things come together, some time they don’t. One of the things I think Jane took on beautifully, which was a challenge, there was a lot more role creation because she set hers 8,000 years before the (mothership) show, so it required a lot more," HBO's Casey Bloys explained earlier this year.