HBO Max Announces Premiere Date for ‘House of the Dragon,’ ‘Game of Thrones’ Prequel
Don’t look now, “Game of Thrones” fans, but HBO just gave you a reason to get excited as they have announced that the much-anticipated prequel series “House of the Dragon” will premiere on Sunday, Aug. 21, 2022, continuing the network’s history of airing its prestige programming on Sunday evenings. The show will air on both the premium cable network and on their HBO Max streaming service.
The 10-episode series will take place 200 years before the events of “Game of Thrones” and is based on George R.R. Martin’s “Fire & Blood” series. Starring in the epic prequel will be Paddy Considine, Matt Smith, Olivia Cooke, Emma D’Arcy, Steve Toussaint, Eve Best, Fabien Frankel, Sonoya Mizuno, and Rhys Ifans.
Interestingly, the August launch date means that there will be significant overlap with Amazon Prime Video’s own franchise fantasy series “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power” which is set to debut on the streamer on Friday, Sept. 2.
Since the latest adaptation from J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle-earth is set for eight episodes, compared to 10 for “House of the Dragon,” the two series will wrap up their seasons in the same week — Sept. 21 for “The Rings of Power” and Sept. 23 for “House of the Dragon.”
The “Game of Thrones” prequel series finds the Targaryen dynasty at the absolute apex of its power, with more than 15 dragons under their yoke. Most empires — real and imagined — crumble from such heights. In the case of the Targaryens, their slow fall begins almost 193 years before the events of “Game of Thrones,” when King Viserys Targaryen breaks with a century of tradition by naming his daughter Rhaenyra heir to the Iron Throne. But when Viserys later fathers a son, the court is shocked when Rhaenyra retains her status as his heir, and seeds of division sow friction across the realm.
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