[Warning: The following contains MAJOR spoilers for House of the Dragon Season 2.]
The Targaryen civil war will take place over just two more seasons of House of the Dragon. HBO and series co-creator Ryan Condal announced on August 5, the day after the Season 2 finale, that the Game of Thrones prequel will end with Season 4. They also shared the first production update on Season 3.
Based on George R.R. Martin’s Fire & Blood, House of the Dragon is set 200 years before the events of Game of Thrones and tells the story of House Targaryen. War has broken out between the two sides of the family after Alicent Hightower (Olivia Cooke) usurped the Iron Throne in favor of her son, Aegon (Tom Glynn-Carney) at the end of Season 1 and robbing Rhaenyra (Emma D’Arcy) of her inheritance. This was followed by the death of Rhaenyra’s young son Lucerys (Elliot Grihault) at the hand of Aemond’s (Ewan Mitchell) dragon Vhagar. Season 2 revealed what happened after those tragic events, ending with the setup for one of the most intense battles from Fire & Blood, the Battle of the Gullet, in Season 3.
Here’s everything there is to know about House of the Dragon Season 3 so far.
When does House of the Dragon Season 3 come out?
Co-creator and showrunner Ryan Condal announced in an August 5 press conference that House of the Dragon Season 3 production is expected to begin in “early-ish 2025.”
Related‘House of the Dragon’ Finale: Every Major Book Change in Season 2
The House of the Dragon Season 3 premiere date will be announced at a later time, but for an idea of when Season 3 could come out, we can look to the time gap between the first two seasons. With just under two years having passed between Seasons 1 and 2, it would be reasonable to presume that it would take around the same time for Season 3 to debut. That’s not set in (dragon) stone, however.
Production on House of the Dragon Season 2 began in April 2023 following the October 2022 finale. Production on Season 2 was not delayed by the Hollywood strikes that summer, as the scripts for the eight-episode season were completed prior to the start of the writers’ strike. Most of the actors in the series are not members of SAG-AFTRA but rather U.K. acting unions, thus allowing them to continue working. Season 2 took about six months to film, with several months of post-production work after that. Season 2 then premiered in June. Based on that, a 2026 release date for Season 3 seems likely.
How many episodes will there be in House of the Dragon Season 3?
House of the Dragon Season 2 was shortened to eight episodes following the 10-episode second season. Condal was asked about the anticipated episode count for Season 3 during the press conference, to which he replied, “I haven’t had discussions with HBO about it. I would just anticipate the cadence of the show, from dramatic storytelling perspective, will continue to be the same from Season 2 on.” The vague answer leaves room for the possibility of a return to 10 episodes.
What will happen in House of the Dragon Season 3?
The Season 2 finale ended with intense buildup to a major battle from the book, the Battle of the Gullet. Condal says to expect that battle to take place early in Season 3, in addition to explaining why it wasn’t in Season 2. He says it will be “the biggest thing to date that we’ve pulled off.”
“We we were trying to give the Gullet, which is arguably the most anticipated — well, I would say maybe the second-most-anticipated action event of ‘Fire & Blood,’ trying to give it the time and the space that it deserves,” Condal told journalists. “Obviously, as anybody that’s seen the finale, we’re building to that event. That event will happen very shortly in terms of the storytelling of House of the Dragon. Based on what we know now, it should be the biggest thing to date that we’ve pulled off, and we just wanted to have the time, the space to do that at a level that is going to excite and satisfy the fans and in the way it’s deserved.”
The Battle of the Gullet is a fight between Rhaenyra’s forces and the Aegon’s, now led by Aemond. As teased in the Season 2 finale, the battle is fought by air and sea. Dragons and their dragonriders will face off as Corlys (Steve Toussaint) leads his fleet in battle against the greens’ naval arsenal. The finale showed Tyland Lannister (Jefferson Hall) successfully recruiting an armada from Essos to Aegon’s side, led by the Triarchy Admiral Sharako Lohar (Abigail Thorn). They’ll face off in the Gullet, the stretch of water between Driftmark and Dragonstone. Blackwater Bay opens into the Gullet.
Liam Daniel / HBO
HBO Gave House of the Dragon an Early Season 3 Renewal
HBO renewed House of the Dragon for Season 3 just days before the Season 2 premiere, which aired on Sunday, June 16. The early renewal came even earlier than House of the Dragon‘s Season 2 pickup in 2022. The first Game of Thrones spinoff was renewed on August 26, 2022, five days after its series premiere on August 21. Now, its Season 3 renewal comes three days before the show returns to our screens.
“George, Ryan, and the rest of our incredible executive producers, cast, and crew, have reached new heights with the phenomenal second season of House of the Dragon,” Francesca Orsi, Executive Vice President, HBO Programming, Head of HBO Drama Series and Films, said in a statement on June 13. “We are in awe of the dragon-sized effort the entire team has put into the creation of a spectacular Season 2, with a scope and scale that is only rivaled by its heart. We could not be more thrilled to continue the story of House Targaryen and watch this team burn bright again for Season 3.”
House of the Dragon Season 3 Cast
While an official cast for House of the Dragon Season 3 has not been announced, Season 2 features returning stars D’Arcy, Cooke, Glynn-Carney, Mitchell, Matt Smith, Fabien Frankel, Rhys Ifans, Eve Best, Steve Toussaint, Matthew Needham, Sonoya Mizuno, Harry Collett, Bethany Antonia, Phoebe Campbell, Phia Saban, and Jefferson Hall.
Additional cast for Season 2 includes Abubakar Salim, Gayle Rankin, Freddie Fox, Simon Russell Beale, Clinton Liberty, Jamie Kenna, Kieran Bew, Tom Bennett, Tom Taylor, and Vincent Regan. Thorn will presumably return as Sharako in Season 3 now that her forces are pledged to Aegon’s cause.
Unless she appears in flashback form or in some kind of vision as seen at Harrenhal this season, Best will not be back as Rhaenys. Her character met her tragic fate in the Battle of Rook’s Rest depicted in Season 2 Episode 4.
House of the Dragon, Season 3 Premiere, TBA, HBO
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