Game of Thrones Prequel House of the Dragon Might Premiere in 2022

Game of Thrones prequel series House of the Dragon might premiere in 2022, HBO's president of programming Casey Bloys has revealed in a new interview at the ongoing 2020 Television Critics Association press tour in California. That would mean a roughly three-year gap between when it was first announced, at the end of October last year, and its premiere in two years' time. Based on George R.R. Martin's 2018 book Fire & Blood, House of the Dragon — created by Ryan J. Condal (Colony) and Martin — is set 300 years prior to the events of the show and tells the history of House Targaryen. (Martin is the author of A Song of Ice and Fire novel series, which served as the basis for Game of Thrones.)

“[The creative team] are in the room breaking story right now,” Bloys told Variety on Wednesday. “My guess is we'll see [House of the Dragon] on the air in [2022].” Bloys noted that he couldn't be more specific at this time because it's too early in development. No cast members have been rumoured or announced. And HBO has yet to figure out when House of the Dragon will begin filming, which is traditionally the longest part of a series' production process. But if it's going to arrive in 2022, it would likely enter production in late 2020 or early 2021, considering the Game of Thrones prequel has a straight-to-series order of 10 episodes.

Game of Thrones alum Miguel Sapochnik will direct the House of the Dragon pilot and future episodes. Martin, Condal, and Sapochnik are also executive producers alongside Vince Gerardis. Martin's Fire & Blood is in fact the first of two volumes of the history of House Targaryen. (The second one is yet unpublished.) It starts with Aegon I Targaryen's conquest of the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros, followed by the lives of his sons Aenys I and Maegor I, the reign of Aenys's son Jaehaerys I, and the succession crisis following the death of his sons. That brings us to the famed civil war known as the Dance of the Dragons, before ending with the first few years of the reign of Aegon III.

House of the Dragon will release in 2022 in India. It's one of two publicly known Game of Thrones prequels. The other one — from Jane Goldman and starring Naomi Watts in the lead — was cancelled on the same day as House of the Dragon's announcement in October. Several others remain in development.