House of the Dragon Executive Producer Quits Series Ahead of Season 2

Executive producer Jocelyn Diaz will not be returning to House of the Dragon for Season 2. According to Deadline, Diaz had a one-year deal with the option of a second for HBO's Game of Thrones prequel, though sources indicate that option is not being picked up. Diaz's exit comes after it was announced that co-showrunner Miguel Sapochnik would step down from that role for Season 2, leaving Ryan Condal as sole showrunner for Season 2, which was greenlit soon after the series' debut.

The series is based is based on George R.R. Martin's Fire & Blood and is set almost 200 years before the events of Game of Thrones, telling the story of House Targaryen.  House of the Dragon has been very successful for HBO, prompting an early Season 2 renewal for the series, with Sapochnik's stepping down announced soon after. Recently Condal broke his silence about the change in leadership, opening up about the challenges it presents.

"We had a conversation in the summer — right around when the show premiered. I knew it was something that he was wrestling with," Condal told Variety "He doesn't have anything left to prove in Westeros, I don't think. He's shot every kind of battle: good and evil, light and dark, fantasy and not fantasy, dragon and no dragon. He's said what he has to say in Westeros. I knew that it was always a possibility that he was going to do one season, get this thing on its feet [and] be proud of having a hand in the actual creation of a Game of Thrones story. It was lingering in the back of my mind, knowing how much is involved with doing another season of the show, would he want to get up on the horse again? I was really bummed. He's tremendously talented. And I'm really proud of the work that we did. But I'm excited to see what he's got in store now."

Condal also said that he is excited for the story the series will tell in Season 2, even if going at it without Sapochnik is a little daunting.

"It's a lot. It's one of those things where, like, I've heard presidents say that they always have more trepidation about their second term than their first because they know the job that they're going into," he said. "I definitely am not comparing this job to the presidency at all. But it's lonely at the top, and now I find myself alone at the top. Thankfully, I have a wonderful team around me. I'm excited for the story that we're going to tell in Season 2. There are thousands of people that go into the making of this. It's on me to be able to be a great leader and try to inspire people, hopefully with some good writing, to get the very best work out of them and make another great season of the show,"

New episodes of House of the Dragon air on HBO and HBO Max on Sunday nights.