If House of the Dragon had been released in 2015 or 2016, it would have almost certainly been riding a tremendous train of hype, seeing it land as an instant success. Naturally, due to the budgets involved, it would have been a tall ask for HBO to fund both Dragon and Game of Thrones at the same time. After the latter crash-landed over its final two seasons, there was much skepticism around both at the release and throughout of House of the Dragon’s 2022 run.
Luckily, word-of-mouth is still a powerful tool, and House of the Dragon ended up being a huge success for HBO. The show even managed to brush aside the bigger-budget prestige fantasy TV show on a more subscribed-to platform, Prime Video, that was based on a more beloved IP. Quality writing and acting won the day, and now, finally, the second season of the Game of Thrones prequel is soaring to our screens.
Bolstering Westeros as a Whole
The backlash to the final season, in particular, of Game of Thrones is well-documented. People weren’t happy that a show they’d committed so much time to just flopped to the finish. A few years later, this disgruntlement was evident in the write-ups chronicling HBO’s efforts to get more Westerosi series off the ground. For many fans, though, it’s now easy to remember it as a great show, but with the qualifier of “bar the final X seasons.”
This is, perhaps, most evident in the engagement with additional linked media. At the highest-rated no deposit bonus casino, which boasts a 5.0 out of 5.0 rating with a 20 no-deposit offer, the Game of Thrones slot remains a prominent figure in the library. It continues to garner stacks of players for its use of the show’s iconic soundtrack, house sigils, and in-theme features. Players will use the bonus on Book of Dead and then fly back to Westeros.
House of the Dragon will have been a big player in this regard. Showcasing quality storytelling in the setting that millions of people loved alongside very well-rendered dragons eased people up a bit. Around the release of the finale, HBO saw some 9.3 million people tune in, which was close enough to the series-high of 10.2 million viewers for the second episode. Since then, more people have given it a go having heard such good things about it.
Season 2 Isn’t Far Away
In December last year, HBO released the first teaser trailer for the second season of House of the Dragon, announcing that it will be soaring onto screens this summer. Many presume that it will air around the same time as Season 1 (August 21), which would be at the very back end of that announced window. Thankfully, production could continue in full force throughout last year’s Hollywood strikes, by virtue of the UK unions, so it will be ready to go this summer.
The first season was very well-crafted, building tension between the two main houses until its grand, crunching finale that offers so much promise from a final scene without any dialogue. The Targaryen civil war, the Dance of the Dragons, is underway, Daemon (played by Matt Smith) has discovered another colossus of a dragon, and there will be plenty of clashes in the air, on land, and perhaps at sea as well.
We had to wait a good four seasons to see an epic big-budget battle in Game of Thrones, but the pieces (and the budget) are already in place for the combat to matter just as much in House of the Dragon. It’s poised to be one of the biggest TV events of the year.