‘House of the Dragon’ Season 2 Won’t be til at least 2024

House of the Dragon‘s Daemon will have time to make his way through the Great Valyrian Songbook (and then some) with Vermithor, because the fantasy drama won’t be back in 2023, an HBO executive says.

HBO and HBO Max chief content officer Casey Bloys says the popular Game of Thrones prequel series likely will return for Season 2 “sometime in ’24,”. “We’re just starting to put the plan together, and just like last time, there are so many unknowns. It’s not to be coy or secretive, but you don’t want to say it’s going to be ready on this date, and then you have to move it.”

On one point, though, Bloys seems fairly firm: “Don’t expect it in 2023.”

House of the Dragon‘s freshman run ended Sunday with an episode that [Spoiler alert!] found Rhaenyra giving birth to a stillborn daughter, getting crowned queen and learning that her middle son, Lucerys, had been killed by Aemond Targaryen and his dragon. (Read a full recap, hear Emma D’Arcy’s take on the Black Queen’s immense losses, and then read Steve Toussaint’s thoughts on Corlys’ big return.)

Afterward, co-showrunner Ryan Condal said that the show would no longer skip around in the history of Westeros or recast main characters. “I will say, as a reward to our wonderful audience for following us through all the time jumps and recasts, they are done,” the executive producer said. “We tell the story in real time from here forward.”

House of the Dragon: What to Expect From Season 2

The HBO’s Game of Thrones prequel is still cooling down from its first season finale, but we’re already looking forward to what’s coming next.

Expect a delay before we get a second season of Rhaenyra (Emma D’Arcy), Alicent (Olivia Cooke), Daemon (Matt Smith), and all the rest. House of the Dragon’s first season entered production in the spring of 2021, before airing in August 2022. Production on season two is expected to get underway early in 2023, and it is also expected to contain far more action than seen in season one, now that the fabled “Dance of the Dragons” is officially underway. In other words, pencil in 2024 for when you can expect to find out what happens next after that miles-high melee between Aemond Targaryen (Ewan Mitchell) and the late Luke Velaryon (Elliot Grihault).

For anyone experiencing deep dragon withdrawal, there’s a cure waiting in the wings: George R.R. Martin’s Fire and Blood. The book House is based on is right there on the shelf, waiting for you to read it. But be warned that doing so will clue you into some of the biggest moments still to come in House of the Dragon.

With that said, if you don’t want to know too much about what’s to come but you still want at least a vague sense of the future, here’s what we’re expecting to see (and at the very least speculating we’ll see) from House of the Dragon whenever it returns for season two.

House of the Wolves

In the season finale, Rhaenyra makes the fateful choice to send her two oldest sons away from Dragonstone to recruit potential allies. It ends up being a costly decision, with Luke losing his life in the effort. Will the same fate await her eldest son, Jace (Harry Collett), last seen heading North? No spoilers there, but the person Rhaenyra sends Jace to meet—Cregan Stark, Lord of Winterfell and Warden of the North—feels like a guaranteed appearance in season two. The amount of time spent in House Stark’s familiar stomping grounds is a worthy question on the board, but unless the show veers wildly off script, count on some snow in your season two forecast.

City of Snow

While we’re sticking in the region, there’s one location near Winterfell we still haven’t seen through eight seasons of Game of Thrones and one season of House of the Dragon: White Harbor, the greatest city in the North. It’s a large port city where several denizens worship the Faith of the Seven rather than the Old Gods typically found in the North, and it’s governed by the Manderly family of New Castle. Alas, House of the Dragon won’t fix the cardinal Game of Thrones sin of omitting George R.R. Martin’s classic character Wyman Manderly from the narrative, but an opportunity to explore the most expansive city of the North feels too big to pass over, particularly when Jace has been commanded by his mother to enlist House Manderly to her cause. It’s definitely a potential skip for House of the Dragon, but if we’re ever going to see White Harbor on screen, season two is the time and place.

The Mad Queen

In the final scene of the season one finale, Rhaenyra Targaryen stares directly at the camera, with “war in her eyes,” according to showrunner Ryan Condal’s script. Throughout “The Black Queen,” and indeed much of the first season, Rhaenyra attempted to toe the line between diplomacy and strength, avoiding bloodshed whenever possible. Twice she had her foes dead to rights on the bridge of Dragonstone, and twice she chose a more peaceful path. The show has avoided a few opportunities to sharpen Rhaenyra’s teeth, putting Daemon forward as the person advocating for using dragons against King’s Landing when that desire comes from Rhaenyra in Martin’s book. Given her last look in the episode, however, and given what Aemond has just done to her son, it’s extremely safe to say Rhaenyra will take the gloves off in season two. In fact…

A Taste of Blood

As I have done many times throughout writing about House of the Dragon this season, I will warn you one last time that the darkest scene in televised Game of Thrones history may very well arise in this specific show. There’s a world where it’s softened for House of the Dragon, but even a relatively toothless depiction of this ominous event (which was gestured at throughout season one with all the rats running rampant in the Red Keep) will be extremely unsettling, to say the least.

Were you hoping that House of the Dragon somehow might return in late 2023? Hit the comments with your thoughts!