House of the Dragon Season 2: Record viewership after series premiere lead to early renewal of GoT spinoff

There’s no stopping the Targaryens. Despite the backlash of the final episode of Game of Thrones, which aired almost three years ago, the premiere of its spinoff series House of the Dragon broke all records, drawing in 20 million viewers in the US alone. So, it’s no surprise that the show has been renewed for its second season already.

House of the Dragons, which is set 170 years before the events of Game of Thrones, focuses on the fall of House Targaryen and the infighting between its members. The season premiere was watched by 13 million viewers in the US and this has only continued to grow since. The first season, which debuted on August 18, will run for 10 episodes and is based on George RR Martin’s Fire and Blood. Game of Thrones had concluded after a popular run of eight seasons.

Created by Martin and Ryan Condal, the series has Emma D’Arcy and Matt Smith as Rhaenyra Targaryen and Daemon Targaryen battling it out as the true successor of King Viserys I Targaryen, played by Paddy Considine.

HBO executive vice president Francesca Orsi had told The Hollywood Reporter that the team “couldn’t be more excited to continue bringing to life the epic saga of House Targaryen with season two”. It’s a grand feat considering that the network had previously shelved the Game of Thrones prequel titled Bloodmoon, which had Naomi Watts in the lead and took place during the Age of Heroes amid the apocalypse. They had even shot the first episode before the network decided to pull the plug.

Currently, HBO has also greenlit at least seven other spin-offs – three of them being animated series. The most-anticipated among these is the one that will continue Jon Snow’s story and will reportedly have Kit Harrington reprising his role from Game of Thrones.