The House of the Dragon: seasons 3 and 4 will have fewer episodes and more questions

The second season of The House of the Dragon was approved almost immediately once it became clear that viewers had not tired of the stories of Westeros and the Seven Kingdoms. But HBO executives are well aware that the series is one of their mainstays right now, and they want to make sure they think through each step and make sure the future of the series maintains audience interest and approval. One of the first decisions in this regard is to reduce the number of episodes in the second season: from the ten of the first, we will go to eight, as reported by Deadline.

A broader perspective

This concentration obeys narrative needs and is linked to the longer-term future of the series. Ryan Condall, executive producer and showrunner, decided alongside George R.R. Martin to take a step back from planning season two to have a broader and more global perspective of the events that have yet to take place in the bloody succession war of the Targaryen family. Developing the map of the battles that have to happen and how to adapt the narrative to the episodic format, the conclusion seems to be to look a step further and to start working on the logistics, casting, and production of a third season whose green light could be very close, as reported exclusively by Nellie Andreeva citing internal sources.

The vision of the two executive producers goes even further since the idea is to cover all of Fire and Blood in its entirety, so the possibility of a fourth season is on the table. Martin has not been shy about his preferences, since in his blog post last October 2022 he spoke clearly that he would need “four seasons with 10 episodes each to do justice to A Dance of Dragons from start to finish”, some initial considerations that are there, but that can be adjusted to find the best fit to maintain quality and production values at the level of one of the most successful series in recent years for HBO.

Source | Deadline