Television fans have been awaiting their grand return to Westeros, but "House of the Dragon" star Matt Smith has graciously given a little update on when we can expect to see the Targaryen family back on the small screen in "House of the Dragon" season 2.
Smith, who portrays Daemon Targaryen in the hit HBO series, recently shared on BBC's "The Zoe Ball Breakfast Show" podcast that the Emmy-winning fantasy series would be coming back for its second season this summer.
"August, I think, I think summer. This summer, yeah," Smith revealed.
That contrasts with the "early summer 2024" release date mentioned by HBO boss Casey Bloys at a press event this past November. Early summer would be more like June, not August.
Smith also gave an update on where production currently stands on season 2. “I’ve not seen any of it yet, but we finished it last year. So, we’ve gotta do all the ADR and all that business,” he said, referencing “automated dialogue replacement,” or dubbing, which shows like "House of the Dragon" utilize to get clear audio during those big, noisy action scenes and such.
HBO still has not released an official premiere date for "House of the Dragon" season 2, but at least fans now have a window to look forward to. The second season of the "Game of Thrones" prequel series — set nearly 200 years before the events of the flagship show and centering on the succession war within House Targaryen during the height of its power — was greenlit by the network shortly after the season 1 premiere, which aired on August 21, 2022.
In the year-plus since season 1 ended (the finale, "The Black Queen," aired on October 23, 2022), "House of the Dragon" viewers got a sneak peek at the upcoming sophomore season in November 2023. The minute-long teaser trailer shows that the conflict between Rhaenyra Targaryen (Emma D’Arcy) and Alicent Hightower (Olivia Cooke) rages on.
“There is no war so hateful to the gods as a war between kin," Rhaenyra says in the clip. “And no war so bloody as a war between dragons,” replies her aunt Rhaenys Targaryen, played by Eve Best. (Indeed, there are plenty of fire-breathing dragons in the teaser — this is Westeros, after all.)
"House of the Dragon" was one of the few high-profile TV programs not negatively impacted by the writers' and actors' strikes of 2023, as the show's scripts were reportedly completed before the Writers Guild of America went on strike and the majority of the cast is composed of U.K.-based actors, who were not subject to the contract restrictions of Hollywood's Screen Actors Guild.
Therefore, filming on season 2 was permitted to continue through last year, seemingly keeping production on track for that summer 2024 release window.
As for future seasons of "House of the Dragon," series co-creator George R. R. Martin revealed in a December 2023 blogpost on his website that work is already being done on seasons 3 and 4.
He wrote: "I also spent two days locked in a room with ['HOTD' co-creator] Ryan Condal and his writing staff (Sara Hess, Ti Mikkel, David Hancock, and Philippa Goslett) talking about the third and fourth seasons of HOUSE OF THE DRAGON. They were lively, fun discussions, and we got some good work done… though two days was not nearly enough. There is so much ground to cover that I am not sure twenty days would have been enough."
Tom's Guide will keep you posted when the "House of the Dragon" season 2 release date is officially announced. In the meantime, you can stream the show's first season with a Max subscription.
