House of the Dragon, HBO’s Game of Thrones prequel, set for 2022 premiere

Game of Thrones fans, don’t hold your breath waiting for House of the Dragon — the upcoming prequel series HBO announced late last year — to show up on your TV listings.  Deadline reports that, according to HBO’s president of programming Casey Bloys, the series likely won’t air until “sometime in 2022.”

Bloys wouldn’t offer any more details than that, save to say that writing for the series is underway, and that there were no casting details to announce yet. He also emphasized that despite the fact that HBO had several other Game of Thrones successors in the works, all focus right now is on House of the Dragon. “There are no other blinking green lights or anything like that,” Bloys told Deadline. “Sometime down the road who knows, but there are no immediate plans. We are all focusing on House of the Dragon.”

House of the Dragon is based on George R.R. Martin’s 2019 book Fire and Blood. The book is set 300 years before the events of Game of Thrones and relates the history of the Targaryens, beginning with Aegon the Conqueror’s initial conquest of Westeros and his bringing the Seven Kingdoms under his rule.

The book then jumps through the decades, touching on each successive Targaryen ruler and the politics, civil wars, and intrigue throughout history. (So far, Martin has just published the first of two planned Fire and Blood books, covering the first half of the Targaryen dynasty. A second book that will cover the remainder of the family’s history up until where A Song of Ice and Fire starts is planned for the future.)

Which aspects of Westeros’ history the show will adapt is as yet unknown — it’s possible House of the Dragon will simply focus on just one part of House Targaryen’s history, like Aegon’s conquest or the Dance of the Dragons (a Targaryen civil war that promises epic draconic battles). Or HBO may choose to emulate Martin’s book, and jump through history to chart multiple eras of the family.

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