George R. R. Martin has revealed that the scope of House of the Dragon will cover nearly three decades of Westeros history. The series, which is premiering on HBO on August 21, 2022, is a prequel to their hit show Game of Thrones, an adaptation of Martin's fantasy novel series A Song of Ice and Fire. That series, which ran for eight seasons from 2011 through 2019, starred a massive ensemble cast and made stars of many of the fresher faces, including Solo: A Star Wars Story's Emilia Clarke, The Sandman's Gwendoline Christie, X-Men: Dark Phoenix's Sophie Turner, and Eternals' Kit Harington and Richard Madden.
House of the Dragon will be hoping to recapture some of that magic. The show, which is a prequel to Game of Thrones set two hundred years before, follows the second century of the Targaryen family having claim over the Iron Throne and ruling the continent of Westeros. It will chronicle the fall of their dynasty as they are torn apart by a civil war known as the Dance of the Dragons, as detailed in Martin's two-volume history novel Fire & Blood. The new series boasts an ensemble that includes Paddy Considine, Ryan Corr, Eve Best, Graham McTavish, Olivia Cooke, Sonoya Mizuno, Bill Paterson, Matthew Needham, Emma D'Arcy, Rhys Ifans, and former Doctor Who star Matt Smith. And it will boast a fittingly epic narrative scope.
The Official Game of Thrones Podcast: House of the Dragon released an episode where co-host Jason Concepcion shares a recording from an interview he performed with Martin during Comic-Con. In the interview, Martin explains the scope of the show in his own words. He revealed that it will cover 28 years of history before the beginning of the Dance of the Dragons, as "the conflict [begins] to grow; the seeds of what will eventually be a war." Read his full quote below:
A lot of things are happening in Westeros as a continent, and there’s stuff going on all over, but what House of the Dragon mostly concerns us with is the issue of succession to the Iron Throne. Of course, the show starts in 101 AC at the Great Council, which the old King Harris has called to let the Lords of the realm advise him on who should succeed to the Iron throne after he dies.
Then the war itself breaks out in 129 AC, so we have basically a 28-year run just in the first season here. And you see the various characters introduced and the conflict begin to grow, the seeds of what will eventually be a war. But not right away. The seeds grow and feelings intensify and grievances are collected and all of that stuff, so, yeah, there’s a lot going on there.
Probably the most intriguing revelation from this quote is the fact that the Dance of the Dragons won't even begin over the course of season 1. The massive conflict will likely last over the course of as many seasons as House of the Dragon covers starting with season 2, but season 1 will be all about exposition and rising tensions. This means it's likely that the timeline of the series will slow down somewhat once the conflict begins in earnest, but leads to some questions as to how the episodes of this current season will be spaced out, and how much ground on the timeline each intends to cover.
This massive scope for House of the Dragon will likely only increase its comparisons to Prime Video's upcoming Lord of the Rings prequel series The Rings of Power. That project will be using the appendices of J.R.R. Tolkien's classic work to cover some of the major historical events of the Second Age of Middle-Earth. The Game of Thrones series has been constantly dogged by comparisons to that classic fantasy work, so one thing working in House of the Dragon's favor is that it premieres several weeks before The Rings of Power, allowing it to carve out its own personality before their simultaneous runs occur over the rest of the season.