House of the Dragon's Iron Throne Is Even More Dangerous Than in Game of Thrones

Game of Thrones fans will get the chance to return to the world of Westeros next month with the premiere of House of the Dragon, a prequel series that takes place hundreds of years before the original. There will be plenty of differences between the Westeros depicted in this new series and the one in the flagship Game of Thrones program, including some changes to the Iron Throne itself. The coveted seat of swords will look a bit different, and presented an even bigger danger on set.

A new EW cover story about House of the Dragon revealed that the actual Iron Throne featured in this show was made with real swords, making it more of a threat than the original, both in looks and practicality. The crew had to put up protective barriers and cover the points in tennis balls between takes, in order to keep anyone from accidentally injuring themselves.

"Literally we had to put [up] fences when we first built it," co-showrunner Miguel Sapochnik told EW. "Some of them are real swords. It is as dangerous as it is [described] in the books."

House of the Dragon is the first series set in the Game of Thrones universe to actually make it to air since the original title ended in 2019. 

Earlier this year, HBO programming chief Casey Bloys spoke to The Hollywood Reporter and opened up about a potential second season for House of the Dragon. While it seems like a potential inevitability, the network will wait to see how the series performs before making an official decision.

"Typically speaking, I like to take an approach where we will talk about what a second season might look like and talk about scripts," Bloys explained. "But we tend to like to see how a show performs. That said, if I were betting, I'd say there's a pretty good shot that House of the Dragon will get a season two. But we tend to like things to air and give it some time. That said, on most shows, we'll do preparation and put ourselves in a good position to move forward."

HBO has been all-in on expanding the Game of Thrones franchise, with quite a few titles in development, including a Jon Snow sequel series. However, at this time, House of the Dragon is the only spinoff that has been officially greenlit by the network. Everything else is just in the developing stages.

"Right now, there's one Game of Thrones series, which is House of the Dragon," said Bloys. "Nothing else has been greenlit. There's various other projects in development but nothing else is greenlit and right now we're focused on House of the Dragon. I don't believe we've passed on any others."

House of the Dragon is set to premiere on HBO on August 21st.