House of the Dragon Director Teases 'Emotional and Visually Exciting' Season 2
While production on many shows has ground to a halt, House of the Dragon Season 2 is soldiering on.
The hit Game of Thrones prequel is expected to meet its summer 2024 return window, despite the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes.
As previously reported, those associated with the show are working under different contracts because the show doesn't film in the U.S.
In a new interview with The Hollywood Reporter, series director Clare Kilner opened up about the decision to nix two episodes from the series order.
News broke earlier this year that we would get eight new episodes instead of the planned ten-part season.
Kilner says that House of the Dragon Season 2 has "eight wonderful episodes with so much happening in every episode, and we have trouble, at times, bringing them down to one hour."
It's unclear whether that means we'll be getting longer episodes at this stage, but it remains a possibility.
Understandably, there were some concerns from the show's fanbase when the decision to nix two episodes was revealed, but it sounds like it aimed to benefit the narrative.
Clare shared that the decision to cut the episode order came from Ryan Condal because of his decision "to give it a good opening and a good ending, and they're jam-packed with emotional and visually exciting events."
House of the Dragon Season 1 wrapped up with plenty of twists and turns as the simmering tensions between the Greens and the Blacks reached a fever pitch.
Kilner also talked about the mixed reaction to having a time jump between House of the Dragon Season 1 Episodes 5 and 6, revealing that the creative team feels like it paid off.
"You can't please everyone, and storytelling is so personal. When you're on set, you just have to make decisions and own them, and I'm sure that's true with showrunners as well," she said.
"We're really invested in these characters now and understand where they came from — especially with the fighting between [the characters as] kids and what they did to each other — and the effect of that feels very present in this season."
What are your thoughts on the decision to lose two episodes?
Would you prefer more action in the eight we're getting?
Hit the comments below.
House of the Dragon is available on HBO and Max.