Battle for the throne

Hold your dragons as Season 2 of HBO’s Game of Thrones’ prequel is set to be aired from June 16 through August 4.

New episodes of the fantasy series, House of the Dragon, are expected to drop every Sunday and will be streamed on Max and OSN+.

Starring Emma D’Arcy and Tom Glynn-Carney, the George R R Martin and Ryan Condal series takes place 200 years before Game of Thrones’ events, specifically tackling the story of House Targaryen.

Picking up where Season 1 left off, fans are expecting the new addition to showcase Rhaenyra and Aegon Targaryen’s Dance of the Dragons as they battle for the throne following the passing of their father, King Viserys I Targaryen.

On March 21, HBO released two trailers, one for Rhaenyra’s Team Black and the other for Aegon’s Team Green, encouraging fans to choose the heir they root for.

“Some people think it’s Rhaenyra, some people think it’s Aegon, and then there are others within who think, ‘Why should it be one of the two of them? Maybe it should be somebody else. Maybe it should be me’,” House of the Dragon showrunner and co-creator Ryan Condal said in an interview.

“The fun of this Greek tragedy is seeing, when you introduce a power vacuum to a world like this, how all of these individuals react,” he added.

According to author and creator George, as revealed in a 2023 blog post, the third and fourth seasons ‘are already being discussed’. “It is going to take four full seasons of 10 episodes each to do justice to the Dance of the Dragons, from start to finish,” George had said.

The book-adapted series is the second from the A Song of Ice and Fire franchise, and is based on the 2018 book Fire and Blood. It is also scored by Ramin Djawadi, who previously worked on Game of Thrones.

Since the Season 1 release in 2022, the fantasy prequel has earned eight awards, including a Golden Globe for Best Television Series for drama and three BAFTAs (British Academy Television Craft Awards), both in 2023.