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House of the Dragon Sees Shorter Season 2; HBO Eyes Season 3: Report

A report claims HBO's House of the Dragon will have a shorter Season 2 as part of a larger plan that could see an early Season 3 green light.

Some big news hitting tonight regarding HBO & showrunner Ryan Condal's House of the Dragon, with Deadline Hollywood reporting exclusively that the second season of the "Game of Thrones" prequel series will consist of eight episodes and not ten, unlike the first season. The reason? The report continues that the move is part of a "bigger picture" plan for the series that includes HBO considering a third-season pick-up. Regarding the decrease in episodes, initial thoughts were that the move was a result of Warner Bros. Discovery's cost-cutting measure, but sources close to the production say that the move was for the sake of the story. With HOTD's creative team setting a 3-4 season course for the series, Condal reportedly worked with author/executive producer George R.R. Martin to establish a better overall sense of how the storylines should line up regarding which seasons they would take place, the battles that would be included, and more. As a result, Season 3 has reportedly been mapped out (with some plotlines & a major battle from Season 2 shifted to the third season), with HBO considering an early greenlight to get a head start on scripts, casting, and overall production plans.

With production on the second season in its early stages, HBO/HBO Max Chief Content Officer Casey Bloys was unable to give a more precise release window other than it hitting screens sometime in 2024 "is a good guess." But looking at Bloys' additional comment in his Variety profile/interview that the show wouldn't be eligible to be nominated during the 2024 Emmy Award season would put a potential Season 2 release to June 2024 at the earliest (though all of this could change even by the time you're done reading this).

HBO's House of the Dragon stars Paddy Considine, Matt Smith, Olivia Cooke, Emma D'Arcy, Steve Toussaint, Eve Best, Fabien Frankel, Sonoya Mizuno, and Rhys Ifans. In addition, Milly Alcock, Bethany Antonia, Phoebe Campbell, Emily Carey, Harry Collett, Ryan Corr, Tom Glynn-Carney, Jefferson Hall, David Horovitch, Wil Johnson, John Macmillan, Graham McTavish, Ewan Mitchell, Theo Nate, Matthew Needham, Bill Paterson, Phia Saban, Gavin Spokes, Savannah Steyn, and more. Production Details: Co-Creator/Executive Producer, George R.R. Martin; Co-Creator/Showrunner/Executive Producer/Writer, Ryan Condal; Executive Producer/Director, Miguel Sapochnik; Executive Producer/Writer, Sara Hess; Executive Producers, Jocelyn Diaz, Vince Gerardis, and Ron Schmidt. Based on George R.R. Martin's "Fire & Blood."

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