The Game of Thrones franchise is finally making its way back to TV next month. On August 21st, the first episode of House of the Dragon will be premiering on HBO, turning back the clock hundreds of years before the events of Game of Thrones. HBO is obviously hoping the new series will be its next major staple, following in the footsteps of Game of Thrones, so it shouldn’t be too surprising to hear that a second season is already very likely.
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According to The Hollywood Reporter, HBO is prepared to renew House of the Dragon for a second season “very quickly” after the new series premieres. The premium network is just waiting to see what the ratings for that first episode look like.
The original Game of Thrones series premiered to a solid 2.2 million viewers, but it grew to become a juggernaut over the course of its eight seasons. The final episode of the series saw more than 19 million viewers on its first night. HBO obviously isn’t expecting House of the Dragon to pick up exactly where Game of Thrones left off in the ratings.
There has been a notion from the time House of the Dragon was ordered to series that HBO would look to renew it pretty quickly. HBO programming chief Casey Bloys was asked earlier this year about a potential second season for the series.
“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. 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 premieres on HBO and HBO Max on August 21st.
